LIFE House – Learning to Invest in the Future of the Earth
What is LIFE House?
LIFE House is a Living/Learning Community in the Bader B residence hall that consists of first year students. The mission of LIFE is to explore the ways in which a diverse group of people can come together to have a positive impact on our world, a mission achieved through student-designed programs and activities. Students elected to be part of the LIFE House because they have a passion for one or more of the LIFE themes: sustainability, community service, and cultural heritage.
[ Sustainability – this is a concept that extends far beyond traditional ideas of environmental responsibility. True sustainability requires paying attention to ecological, economic, and social aspects of a problem. For the LIFE House, sustainability translates into approaching problems from different perspectives to come up with creative, fun, and lasting solutions.
[ Community Service – LIFE is about taking action and realizing the power that people can have to shape the future of the world, both as individuals and as part of a group. Through community service, students build mutually beneficial relationships with campus and community organizations and gain hands-on experience with different segments of our community.
[ Cultural Heritage – cultural heritage encompasses much more than race and ethnicity; it includes where we’re from, our socioeconomic status, our political beliefs, and our family traditions. The LIFE program seeks to explore differences and discover the connections under the surface so that we can find the most creative and inclusive solution possible.
How does the LIFE House connect to the Environmental Center?
The LIFE House is a project under the coordination of the Environmental Center Intern, Ashlee Robison, and is a conscious attempt to find an inclusive, creative, and powerful approach to environmental issues. Our hope is that by creating different norms for discussion and engagement, we will be able to discover how to engage a broader portion of the population. This is the reason for making cultural heritage a central part of the program. This is new territory, and very few environmental organizations are tackling this challenge in such a progressive way. Skills and lessons we learn in LIFE activities can cascade up through other Environmental Center programs and, from here, out into the community of Durango and beyond.
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LIFE student Tyler Kieta in New Mexico
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LIFE student Kaley Burton rockin' the peace sign
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How do students decide what kind of programs to host?
In the beginning of each semester, students attend a retreat during which we engage in team-building activities, discuss the themes of LIFE House, and offer the students a “menu” of various types of activities they can choose for the semester’s programs. Some of the types of events include community gardening, working on a service project at one of the nearby national parks and monuments, bringing in speakers to talk about different cultures, carbon-free fun (doing random, fun activities while minimizing our carbon impact), and finding creative ways to learn about various environmental and/or social justice issues. The programs are entirely student-driven and student-organized with minimal guidance from the LIFE House coordinator. Providing students with the opportunity to take charge of their own learning experiences is a quality unique to the LIFE House and is a source of pride for FLC because it is a progressive way of offering education.
Fall 2009 Programs
Fall Retreat
The first weekend that freshmen students arrived on campus we took them to New Mexico for an overnight retreat. We checked out camping equipment from Outdoor Pursuits and spent the next two days learning about everyone’s backgrounds and experiences over s'mores. Students were able to open up and share honestly about certain experiences that had affected them in powerful ways, and through this activity, we learned about people’s backgrounds and were able to gain an appreciation and understanding of each other. It was during this retreat that students chose what kinds of activities they wanted to plan for the rest of the fall semester.
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Tara Mandala Buddhist Retreat Center
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Indigo wool being dyed at Tierra Wools
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| Loom used to make tapestries at Tierra Wools in Los Ojos, NM |
Hand painted and carved ornamentation at Tara Mandala Retreat Center |
