Learning With Europe

This trip was an amazing opportunity for those of us who were fortunate enough to participate in it. The events we attended, and the contacts we met with were all exceptional. I was hoping that this trip would help me focus my interests and lead me towards a topic for my senior research next year. Interestingly, its effects were quite the contrary. This trip exposed me to a whole array of fascinating topics and issues that I would love to research further. It was really an eye opening and academically exciting trip, the quality of experiential learning and the value of seeing politics and policy making happen first hand is really an asset to my education. There is a distinct difference between seeing something in concept, maybe in a classroom, and seeing it in practice on the ground in Brussels and London.
This applies not only to the students on this trip, but more generally can be seen across the field of environmental politics. As far as policy spheres go environmental politics is young. In our class this year we discussed the origins of the Green movement, the Green movement is as much of a new political project as the EU is. As we walked through Brussels for the EU Green Week I was contemplating how the EU had developed so dynamically from regulating the coal and steel markets of Western Europe to becoming a globally recognized political powerhouse. Environmental policy, one of the areas that the EU leads the world in has had a dynamic past and unique development as well. What was once a rallying point for anti establishment hippies is now being championed by political leaders. The development of these two institutions do not necessarily parallel each other but they do reflect a common experience. At their origins, no one could have predicted the path either of these projects would take. The EU was strictly an economic entity designed to maintain European peace, Environmental movements were local, and lacked organization and leadership. Yet both of them have evolved over a period of decades to become successful and important political entities. The EU and Environmental politics is a fascinating field to study. Both have a unique and interesting past and have developed dramatically in the last half-century. The unique nature of these areas of study is that by witnessing them first hand as a scholar you can see the dynamic nature of the institutions. Questions like who should be responsible for certain environmental policy, how should it be carried out, what is the best way to ensure it succeeds were all being discussed in front of us. The area where EU politics and Environmental policy meet is a rapidly changing and exciting area to study. While the class-room preparation we had this spring was very valuable to getting the most out of our trip, the only way to see and understand what this topic is about is to put your feet on the ground in Europe. These political entities are not just textbook topics, they are living organisms that interact with one another, evolve and can be changed on a day-to-day basis. Seeing this firsthand has been an amazing learning experience and is a real asset to my understanding of the political process and my education. I want to thank Professor Buck and Professor Williams for leading this great trip and I really hope other students get to have a similar opportunity