Meet Christopher Thomas
Christopher Thomas has had the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research in two African countries while studying Environmental Studies at UW Tacoma. He recently returned from Kenya where he served as a research assistant for Professor John "Buck" Banks. In the Summer of 2008, he participated in the UW Seattle Honors study abroad program in Sierra-Leone. He received two study abroad scholarships, UW International Programs & Exchanges Study Abroad Scholarship - Sierra Leone and UWT Fuchs Scholarship. He was able to utilize his research on the complex issue of sustainable rice farming for his Global Honors thesis.
Christopher has also contributed to the academic community as a guest lecturer at the University of Puget Sound. In summer 2008 he presented at the Ecology Society of America conference. Recently, he was asked to write a book review for the Pacific Northwest Quarterly on the book "Greenscapes: Olmsted's Pacific Northwest" by Joan Hockaday. In January 2010, he will tele-present his research in Sierra-Leone at a sustainability conference in Ecuador. In addition, he served on the IAS Director Search Committee.
As a junior, Christopher held a Leiendecker Scholarship, as well as an All Washington Academic Scholarship. He was a mentor for "Earthy Conversations," sponsored by the Chambers Creek Foundation and Pierce County, an organization charged collecting thoughts, ideas, plans, and dreams for transforming 928 acres of property in University Place into "an experiential and environmental opportunity for this and future generations." All the while, he has made the Dean's list each term at UWT.
"Participating in the Global Honors program adds a welcoming dimension to the UWT experience. It is challenging but rewarding to fuse my science-heavy environmental studies with the global, interdisciplinary frameworks embedded in the Global Honors courses. This 'fusing' has greatly strengthened my understanding of social and ecological systems so that I may apply these understandings to my future goals in environmental anthropology.
"I studied in a remote village in Sierra Leone last summer to better understand sustainable agricultural practices, possible threats to current local systems, and the perceptions of the farmers and villagers on the dynamics that they create and exist within. This ethnographic journey was four weeks long and is projected to turn into future graduate work."
Christopher Thomas, Senior in Environmental Studies & Global Honors
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