“Action is at the heart of sustainability,” says one Presidio Graduate School student who has been moved from thinking about sustainability to acting on it.
“It’s all good and well to talk about it, but doing something is more important,” Karin Meyer says.
As Meyer prepares to finish her sixth semester and graduate from the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, she says one of the key experiences she’s had is that change from reflection to action.
Meyer talks about the energy that comes from being around others who are doing the same thing and thinking in similar ways.
“We are all practitioners more than anything else. There are lots of opportunities to notice something, and say ‘OK, I’m going to pick this up and make it happen, ” she says.
One of four programs offered at Presidio, the MPA is designed for students heading to leadership roles in the public sector. It attracts students from a wide array of disciplines with a promise of business skills couched in sustainable management principles. Meyer, for example, is an educational psychologist with two degrees in alternative medicine.
In her third semester, Meyer not only became president of the student representatives, but also co-founded a fund to help students attend academic conferences. The Presidio community is full of such opportunities to move from reflection to action.
“Just to be surrounded by other people who feel that — and not just feel that but get up and do something about it — is invaluable,” she says.
Meyer says she’s committed to a future that involves the Presidio community as she pursues a career where her strengths lie in the field of alternative medicine.
“Presidio is my community,” she says.
