Anderson+Draft+Overview


 * Title: ** Youth Environmental Activists: The Power of Community

 **Abstract:**
 * **Aims: ** The aim of this project is to find out why certain college students become leaders in their college's environmental movement.
 * **Methods: ** Methods used will include a literature review, ethnography, and interviews. News pieces and blogs about student environmental activism on both campus and worldwide issues will also be examined to provide a discourse analysis as well as act as a method of gaining opinions from people who might be difficult to track down and interview, as well as a method for gauging key activities.
 * **Expected results: ** Certain factors promote college student environmentalism and the efficacy of that environmentalism.
 * **Expected significance and circulation: **This project will provide college students, college administrators, and groups working with college students on sustainability initiatives determine the best ways to mobilize people.
 * Overview: **
 * **What the study aims to accomplish **: understanding what led college student environmental leaders to become environmentalists and choose to be active.
 * **How the study will accomplish these aims, and why the proposed approach is best: ** College student environmental leaders will be interviewed to determine how they became active environmentalists. Ethnographic research at conferences and events for student environmentalists will show the interactions between students as well as the imaginaries of student environmentalists and others.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Where you will obtain data: **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Data will be collected through interviews and ethnography.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Why the study is important, in general, and particularly at this historical moment: **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Many college students are pushing against activities that have the potential to harm the environment (including hydrofracking and tar sands). Climate change, biodiversity, and diseases from pollution are all at a crisis. Learning how students become environmental leaders is therefore of importance both to study the phenomenon and for organizations working to promote environmental activism among students to do their job better.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Who will carry the study out, with what expertise and preparation: **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> I, Elizabeth Anderson, will carry this study out. I will have completed my undergraduate degree requirements for Sustainability Studies by the end of Fall 2013. I am currently a Masters student in Ecological Economics, Values, and Policy and have completed four semesters of undergraduate research as well as the very competitive RPI Summer Undergraduate Research Program. In Fall of 2012, I took Research Methods and am IRB certified. In addition, I have attended many student leadership conferences, including Power Shift 2011, Power Shift New York 2012, Power Shift 2013, and Project Pericles National Conference 2012. I have also gone to Occupy Wall Street and a Keystone Pipeline XL protest in Washington, D.C. Through my work with EcoLogic, Student Sustainability Task Force, and Student Senate at RPI, I am very aware of the power dynamics that exist at RPI with relation to student activism and sustainability.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Background and Significance: **
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">State of the phenomena **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">: Students are working towards on many different environmental goals.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">State of the social and cultural studies literature on the phenomena:
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Preparation and Work thus Far: **
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Record and expertise of researcher: **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Anderson is a fourth-year student in a coterminal bachelors and masters degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She has taken a Research Methods course and is IRB-certified. In addition, Anderson has done four semesters and a summer of research on various sustainability issues in the fields of science and technology. Anderson is President of EcoLogic and Co-Chair of the Student Sustainability Task Force, two RPI clubs working on environmental sustainability. Anderson has attended Power Shift 2011, Power Shift New York 2012, Project Pericles National Conference 2012, and Power Shift 2013. She has gone to several protests for the Occupy movement, anti-hydrofracking movement, and anti-Keystone pipeline movement.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Preliminary findings: **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> College students tend to take different paths towards environmental activism. College is also a great learning experience and mind-expander when it comes to environmentalism. Courses and clubs expand students’ thinking and help them connect events.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Pilot studies: **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Power Shift 2013.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Methodology and Plan of Work: **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Conceptual framework:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Research questions:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Site justification:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Study components:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Schedule of activities:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Evaluation and Validity:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Research Ethics:
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Dissemenation: **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Conference presentations:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Publications:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Cross-expertise dialogue:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Policy work: