I’m in my office and eight minutes ago the electricity recharging my lap top was a thermo-nuclear reaction in the sun. A second ago it was a puff of wind passing the building. The roof is held up by whole Aspen trees, sustainably harvested nearby. The walls of my office are 2 million years old dirt from across the road pressed into bricks by our students. We are plugged into nature and it feels great.

Actually it’s a huge relief to switch on a light (LED of course) and know that no coal is being burned or nuclear waste created. We don’t want to change the climate with more CO2 or give people heart and lung disease from coal emissions. We don’t want to create highly toxic radioactive waste for which no one has a disposal solution. As it happens, in practice we don’t need to switch on the lights very much because the building is fully day-lighted naturally through some brilliant design features.

The building is also in tune with nature at a very profound level. The front door faces East to the nourishing rising sun and the different rooms are placed around the building to maximize on the energy qualities from the sun at different times of day. The rooms are pleasantly proportioned. All this comes the ancient knowledge of Vastu Architecture which our founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, has re-established.

I can breath the building’s air deeply with no fear. Why? It complies with the ‘Bau Biology Certification.’ This is a German system to ensure minimal toxicity of any kind in a building. And if there’s too much CO2 in a classroom due to people’s breath, then a sensor switches on an air pump that draws in fresh air from our geothermal earth tubes.

This building is fantastic. Come and see for yourself!

The Sustainable Living Center(SLC) has been featured in many local news channels

WHO TV 13: Featured on their Renew Iowa segment– the building is described to be “as unique as the school”. Professor Lonnie Gamble is quoted as saying, “It does its own functions like a tree would. So, we use the metaphor of a tree for the design of the building.” The full article can be found here.

Iowa Source: The article goes in depth about the building’s energy usage. Professor Lonnie Gamble is quoted as saying “Even in this phase of development, the building is one of the best of the current generation of green buildings”. The full article can be found here.

In his upcoming course on Policy for Food Security starting April 30th, member of SL faculty, John Collins, will be focusing on the Congo, including skypeing in to aid workers like Courtney Brandt (Medair) in the field. These brave people are working to address basic needs of food, clean water, bridge rehabilitation (so food can still be delivered in the wet season) and basic health care for malaria, aids, dengue and yellow fever. Human disease in intimately connected to food security. Parents who are debilitated by disease can’t work to hunt or grow food or feed their families. The class will also be meeting Kabuila, our very own Congalese MUM student, and discussing her plans to return to her country and make a difference.

Ultimately a great deal of the Congo’s problems stem from stress fighting stress arising out of a complex history. Peace programs like the Global Country for World Peace’s meditation groups could be a key initiative. Transcendental Meditation and it’s advanced TM Sidhi program has the ability to radiate an influence of peace and to neutralize societal stress. That’s one reason why students at MUM all practice TM. This approach was used to end the civil war in Mozambique in 1990 and is still actively advocated by the then President Chissano.

Altogether there are 20 hours of material available for streaming. The series is created and hosted by James Moore (left) and Stuart Tanner (right). David Osterberg is in the center, and I’m on my own!

Head of the SL Policy Track at MUM

Over the summer, I received a ‘random’ Facebook message from a friend of mine, Todd Urick, who I knew back in my community media days in Davis, California. Todd was incredulous in wondering if I lived in the same Fairfield, Iowa as the solar-powered local low power FM radio station KRUU 100.1 that he had been helping from across the country. I replied, that Yes! I now live in Fairfield, and we began talking about his involvement with KRUU. I was amazed at the synergistic connecting power of the internet and how people of similar values and interests tend to channel themselves into similar currents of human life, and the loci of the currents–the particular positions–tend to be wonderful little cities like Davis, California and Fairfield, Iowa. Cities that attract people who want to create positive change in the world, by providing a fertile and nourishing environment, the conditions through which to encourage progressive creativity.

Todd Urick, of Common Frequency

I lived in Davis for probably the total of a decade of my life before leaving the town in 2006. Back then, I was never once aware of the word “sustainability.” I was interested in this big idea of community media, and how it serves a purpose in providing avenues for true free speech, expression and community development. Now that I’ve been studying sustainability and media at MUM for close to a year, I have been seeing how sustainability calls for the redefining of all aspects of life, including media.

I decided to use this discovery of Todd’s and my connection with Fairfield to begin exploring the idea of what is local media, why is it important, and how does sustainability apply to something like media. I asked Todd some questions, and he gave me some very informative and illuminating answers.

1. Todd, please tell me about your involvement with KRUU 100.1 (in Fairfield, IA).

I first bumped into KRUU via their website, where I learned not only did the station run off solar power, but they were using open-source software and doing an amazing job at serving the community (better than some low power FM stations in larger cities).  I thought that with such great service they should be serving more of the region (currently they are at 100 watts).  I found there was an open 25,000 watt radio channel the FCC had opened in the vicinity for entities to apply for.  KRUU could not allocate the resources to apply for the channel since FCC applications are a risky proposition (you may invest a lot in the application process and it may yield nothing).  Anyhow, I believed so much in the station that I said that our nonprofit, Common Frequency, would provide the engineering and legal resources for an application.  That was in early 2010.  In mid-2011 the FCC selected their application for the radio channel–and one other–for a 50-50 share-time for the channel.  So we were successful, and currently the details are being worked out.

Todd in Sunny California

2. What is your history with community media?

I started a micropower FM station when I was in high school because I was dissatisfied with what was on the radio.  Later when I went to college I was manager at KDVS, a 9200 watt freeform FM station in Davis, CA [its station lives on the campus of UC Davis].  I became interested in starting radio stations in which the community could actually be a part of, or “community radio.”  I got together with my friend Jeff Shaw, who co-runs a local public access TV channel [Davis Media Access], and Sakura Saunders, who is media activist that is on the board of Prometheus Radio Project in Philadelphia, and we formed a nonprofit called Common Frequency.  In the last few years I have worked to license several new radio stations for grassroots/community use.  I mainly do engineering paperwork, but I have my nose in a lot of projects.  I am also attempting to form a network of radio stations to share grassroots programming.

3. Tell me about your non-profit and how it relates to community media.

There are very few outlets across the US in which ordinary people can get their voices out there on the airwaves.  Most people consume media (TV, radio, and now the internet) that is completely derived by corporate entities.  I think corporate lobbying and media disinformation campaigns are the big two reasons why democracy is failing.  I thought if we could somehow start free-speech radio stations in each city, we at least planted a seed in each community to provide the momentum we need for change.  I’m not talking about “progressive” radio stations, but stations that encourage local debate, centering on problem-solving instead of rhetoric and hate talk.  That local debate is missing on the corporate airwaves.  That, and new interesting music. So our nonprofit aims to license these new radio stations.  But its an uphill battle with some many larger/well-funded religious broadcast applicants, and the fact that Americans are not media literate (many do not understand the power of the media).

4. If a town wants to start their own LPFM, what do they do?

Email us!  There is an Low Power FM (LPFM) filing opportunity most likely in the fall of 2011.  This is when the FCC will open one week for nonprofits to apply for some of the last remaining open FM channels across the US.  Filling out an form will take some help of people who know what they are doing–especially if the FCC requires engineering exhibits.  So start now.

5. What do you think about “sustainability”? How would you define it? How do you see community media as being a sustainable form of media?

I think sustainability, in contemporary terms, is multifaceted in definition.  I think the definition has something to do with existing in balance in nature or society–or even, at the core, some type of higher moral consciousness.  I think activities rooted in mutual benefit are more enduring in nature, but within a capitalistic rubric, that is very hard to see sometimes–or may not even resonate with capitalism, or not even be fiscally enduring.  And that is the problematic side-effect of capitalism: fiscally sustainable doesn’t equate to true sustainability.  Community media is the commons where true democracy can flourish if moderated properly.  I think if you have an outlet for debate, the most rational ideas will rise to the surface.  In that aspect, thinking sustainably is a product of an education based upon learning how to reason and having access to information and many viewpoints.  Thus, community media encourages sustainable thinking.

6. Anything else you’d like to share?

Yeah, we always need people to help (volunteers).  This isn’t glamorous work–its hard work just like anything else.

* * *

My thanks to Todd Urick for sharing his thoughts with us and his help to our local low-power radio station–KRUU 100.1. If you are at all interested in local radio, I encourage you to check out the station, and get involved!

How do you love to live? Are you on your way in the unending process of defining, redefining and refining your own personal answer to this question, or have you not yet begun this process? Wherever you lie on the continuum, one event that helped me in my own answering process was the life envisioning workshop, lead by Seth Braun, held at the Abundance Seed Center, on October 1st during Block break. Seth Braun’s workshop was the morning segment of the Sustainable Living Amping trip, organized by Sustainable Council members, James Schleppenbach and Soangela Hardt.

Without knowing the specifics of what lay before us, a group of Sustainable Living students, as well as students from other departments, met in the morning of October 1, 2011 at the Sustainable Living gardens and piled into the SL white bus to take a ride to the Abundance Seed Center at the Eco-Village just two miles north of MUM, off Highway 185.

Seth Braun

The morning was crispy and sunny as we got off the bus and walked into the Seed Center. In front of us were tables with large pieces of paper on them. We sat at the tables in small groups, and Seth introduced himself–he is a local author, speaker and coach–and then he placed his workshop in the context our own lives and what is going on in the greater outside of the world. Seth quickly introduced us to his worldview–Integral Theory –which is a guiding viewpoint that seeks to integrate the best of the worldviews that have come before this time. Integral theory aims to draw a thread of incorporation into our current times, that ties together seemingly fragmented aspects of our society–the separation between production and consumption, as one example.

My interpretation of the basis of Seth’s workshop is this: we all know that we are college students here, and college is just a stepping stone between the person we are now, and the person we are to become, but as we work on our daily assignments and worry about the exam we have on Saturday morning–and Saturday morning exams do happen!–we may fail to see our college experience as located in the context of the greater whole of the career path we’d like our life to follow. How would you like to use your education as a resource, a stepping stone in “riding the wave” of your life?  “Riding the wave” is a new definition of “career” that Seth presented with us this Saturday that actually came from a long ago definition of the word “career.” This new yet old definition, is considerably more free and expansive than the connotation of “career” to which most of us are accustomed, and grew up possibly loathing or stressing out about.

Students gear up their thinking.

The first activity of Seth’s process was a group activity, which was a practice in eliminating the hesitation we have within ourselves when asked to brainstorm ideas. In timed sessions, we were asked to come up with as many different uses for a golf ball as possible. Each session we competed with other groups to see who could come up with more ideas, and it did not matter if the ideas were good, what mattered was how quickly we could come up with them.

Next, we used our newly worked-out brainstorming muscles to do the same kind of quick envisioning work, but applied to what we want to use our education to help us do in the future. While I jotted down my dreams, I noticed that I did not care if my vision was expressed in a clear way. I wrote down the ideas, and let it all flow out, until slowly, it synthesized in my mind, that I want to use my education to help me become a better story-teller. This has been in my heart and being for years, but until this workshop during the SL Amping trip, I had not been able to so clearly define it.

The third and final step of Seth’s process was to help each other brainstorm the resources available here at MUM and in the larger Fairfield community, resources that can help take our dreams from ideas to goals, which will eventually lead to actions. Individually, we made a list of all the resources we think we need, whether they exist or not, to help us on our way. Just as I was writing the word “Mentors,” Seth asked me to come to the front of the group and be an example in workshopping my dream of story-telling.

Seth helps me brainstorm action steps.

I explained that what I desired was to tell stories that inspire others.  Quickly the whole room was full of hands raised, hands of peers, teachers and SL department members, all having ideas of resources available to me, while Seth wrote down the ideas on a large piece of paper. It was extremely amazing to get over my fear of sharing my dream to a whole group, and then to feel the abundant power of a bee-hive of thoughts, all flowing to help me in my process.

We broke into pairs and did the same process with each other that we all did for me in the large group exercise. What I found, after the whole morning of warming up, was that my ideas were so active and creative, I was making connections and offering them without worrying about whether or not they were good ideas, or if I “should” say them. They were all flowing from the desire to help.

Ashley and Emanuel at the SL Amping Trip.

If you are not yet aware of the thought habits you practice that keep you in the same holding pattern, that keep you from expanding your horizons, I would highly suggest participating in a dream-envisioning workshop like the one I have described here with Seth Braun. These levels of self-work are related to our Consciousness-Based education here at MUM, where we learn that the level of thought is the basis of all creation. If your goals are not being supported at the groundwork of yourself by the thoughts you practice, then your goals are not resting on a sustainable internal foundation. Even if you have begun learning (and unlearning) the thought habits that prevent you from moving in the direction of your goals, I highly urge/suggest/recommend a life envisioning process with Seth Braun or one (and many) like it. May you soon begin to learn the power of practicing to allow your thoughts to continuously guide your life in an inspiring direction.

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SL Students Creat Biomass Garden

A group of MUM students have successfully pioneered a new format for classes held within the sustainable living department.

Saturday classes are now community development days!

This past Saturday, our ecology class spent the morning clearing out our new greenhouse and preparing a biomass garden for the department.

The Sustainable Living Biomass Garden:
*Double dug, compost amended beds.
*Comfrey, Alfalfa, Goat’s Rue.
*Rhizobium Inoculum.

The biomass garden will be used to grow a portion of the required compost for SL. This will allow us to use less fuel to transport materials to campus and create less of a dependency on outside resources.

Before I run the interview, allow me to reveal to you the location of the MUM Bike Shop: 1. Find the east entrance to the Sustainable Living department. It is just past the Student Gardens. 2. Once inside the building follow that first main hall all the way to the west end of the building until you find the large SL classroom, room 119. 3. The bike shop is inside that classroom, through a door as you keep going west.

Tell me about the Bike Shop, what is its history?

Mattie Kennedy is your friendly neighborhood MUM bike mechanic.

The bike shop officially became my work-study position last year. The bike room has always been here on campus. This is the beginning of my third year, and when I first came here, I heard about the bike room and I went back there. It was super disorganized and I almost didn’t think that it was a legit bike room. Then it got cleaned up a little bit that year. At that time, I was doing some bike work for people, charging them money, which was in no way associated with the university.

At the beginning of last year, Mark Stimson approached me and told me that there was a work-study position opening up to work in the bike shop, and he asked me if I was interested. I told him, Absolutely! So when it became a work-study position, it was then that the university was paying me for bike maintenance, rather than the individual student paying out-of-pocket.

I think its a great program because it allows college students who don’t have spare money to have a place to fix up their bikes. If I work on your bike, labor is free, you just have to pay for replacement parts.

How do you know about bikes?

I have grown up my entire life having cycling as a very important part of my life. My dad introduced it to me when I was very little, and I actually did some local racing in my town for five years before I came here to go to school. Pretty much everything you can do on a bike, I’ve done it. Well–not unicycles… But, I do have a tandem bike here on campus. Me and my girlfriend were riding it about ten minutes ago.

Where are you from?

I am from southern Wisconsin. It is beautiful up there; I used to enjoy taking bike rides for training and just for fun. So many times, I could ride out in the country to the point where I could go 2 hours without seeing another person. It has just super beautiful scenery.

Are you a Sustainable Living major?

I am a Sustainable Living major. My emphasis is in Green Building and Renewable Energy. I am really interested in mechanical things. This is also why I like doing bike mechanics. I have a dream of someday building my own home, or really putting a lot into a fixer-upper, because, when I came to MUM, I really wanted to build my own house. But Lonnie Gamble has something that he likes to tell students in all the Green Building courses which is: The most sustainable building is one you do not build.” Because as soon as you put that energy into creating it, that’s energy spent that you could put into fixing an existing house.

Okay, now into specifics. How do students get help from you? If I have a broken bike, what do I do?

Last year, people got help from me mainly word-of-mouth, and that kept me busy enough because I was still working on fixing up the shop and making it a nicer place. My hours were a bit inconsistent last year. This year, my office hours will be: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, from 3:30 to 5:30 pm.

Any student who has any sort of bicycle-related problem, can bring the bike into the shop and if I’m not there, definitely label the bicycle as being yours. Leave a description on the bike of what is needed. You can also email me at: cycleguy2112@gmail.com.

If you leave your bike in the shop when I am not there, please make sure to label your bike. The bike shop is a place where you can take and use any parts that you see. And sometimes entire bicycles get donated for re-use, and so, if your name is not on your bike, it can be mistaken as a donation. It has happened in the past.

Would you ever want any help in the shop, if people are interested in helping out?

This is my last year here, so regardless of whether I will do something like a Bike Kitchen where people can come and hang out and help and learn somethings from me, there is going to have to be someone to replace my position next year.

When students come in with a small problem, I often have them watch what I do. Especially if it is something that happens to their bike a lot, and that is easy to fix. There was a girl last year whose chain was falling off all the time, so I showed her how to put the chain back on her bike. Or you know, adjusting your breaks or changing a flat tire. These are all things that are basic mechanics. Just as long as tools don’t scare you, you can do a lot of stuff on your own.

If I need a bike, how do I get one in Fairfield?

There are three ways.

Sometimes stuff gets donated to the bike room. If the bike has been left on campus for a while, and has flat tires and broken parts on it, we assume that the person is not coming back for it. The bike will come into the bike shop, and this is how sometimes we can have entire bikes we can fix up and give to people. This would be the free or minimal cost way to get a bike.

Walmart sells bikes. They are just over $100. I hear they sell bike insurance for $10 and I would recommend getting that, because a lot of their bikes fall apart quickly after being purchased. Because they sell so many bikes, they do not have professional mechanics putting them together. They just have people who put stuff together putting together the bikes and the bikes can just fall apart quickly after getting sold. But, Walmart’s bikes still roll. They go forward. They are bicycles none-the-less.

I personally would recommend that if you have the $300 dollars, get a bike at AJ’s. AJ will fix the bike if there is anything that goes wrong with it–if it is a defect that is not your fault, like if you crashed into a tree and the bike broke. If you are riding along and you notice that a part is loose, and you bring it in, he apologizes and fixes it up right away. His bikes work great. He has an awesome selection. And in my opinion, his bikes are prettier.

They are super nice there. Sometimes, they sell used bikes there too. I got lucky and got a vintage Schwinn road cruiser at AJ’s for about 90 bucks.

AJ is a good guy. If I go in there to buy a bike tube, we talk for an hour. We have lots of stories to swap. He’s got a bunch of maps in there, too–local maps of mountain bike trails, for example. By the way: The Fairfield loop trail is getting completed next month. It will be a complete loop, whereas right now it is kind of like a horseshoe. Its opening day will be sometime in December.

Do you have any advice for people who are just beginning to ride their bikes around here?

Fairfield is extremely bike-friendly. You really don’t need a car here. I ride my bike in the winter, though I guess that is a bit extreme. Most people don’t do that.

This is what Mattie looks like when he fixes your bike.

As far as salts on the road, it is not so much a problem for bikes. If you notice that your bike is getting dirty or you rode it through some slush or the rain, a good thing to do is to take a rag and wipe it off, including the chain, and re-apply oil. For the most part, that is an easy thing to do anytime your bike gets dirty or wet. A clean machine runs better.

Also, it is important to have both front and rear lights on your bike at night. It can be a $150 ticket if you don’t have them.

Any final words about the Bike Shop that you’d like people to know?

On Saturday, September 24th, there will be an event taking place at MUM, at which I will host a bicycle repair workshop, going over at least changing a flat, and possibly more.

On Thursday, September 22nd, there will be a Critical Mass meeting at Howard Park (where the Farmer’s Market is held) beginning at 7 pm.

______________

Now, everyone enjoy the benefits of this awesome service available to us as students at MUM. Thanks to Mattie for the interview and sharing bike expertise with his MUM community!

The answer is: Sustainability is all around you. Rather, your opportunity to experience sustainability is all around you. Anything can be your entry-point. You don’t have to wait until graduation or until you land a successful sustainability-related job to begin your life of sustainability.

Sustainability is about seeing problems as future solutions. Since it is about a redefinition of human’s relationship to the Earth and to the art of living in general, there are infinite ways to begin creating a vision of a better life for yourself. It is all up to you.

Now that you are here at MUM, allow my words to be your invitation to create the best possible educational experience while you are an SL student. Make it happen for yourself! Allow your time at MUM to be where you dive into life, and begin practices of living that pave the way for a more fulfilling life for yourself, and as a result, a better life for the planet.

As I start my second semester as an SL student here at MUM, and I think about You, the new student, just beginning your journey here, I have taken some time to reflect on what I have learned about my experience thus far, and I have come up with some suggestions that I wish someone had told me when I first got here.

It is my hope that you benefit from these, and from the very center of my heart.

_________________________________________________________________________

10 Things I wish I already knew when I began my Sustainable Living studies:

1. Get Grounded First.

Though it may sound like I am telling you to rush out and act, act, act, do take some time to get grounded. Set up your dorm room, make sure you have everything you need to be comfortable, get all the warm clothes you want for the upcoming winter weather, etc. Take time to familiarize yourself with the resources of this campus and of the town of Fairfield. Ensure that your basic needs are met. With a great foundation, you will best be poised for effective action!

2. Keep Yourself Healthy.

This goes along with getting grounded, but if you are not taking care of yourself and getting enough sleep, your basis for a successful college career will be shaky. Dare yourself to become as healthy as you possibly can! And if you do get sick, don’t hesitate to take a step back and take care of yourself. Your own wellness should come first for you.

3. Use Everything.

This is where some more tangible sustainability philosophy kicks in: Nothing is wasted in nature–everything has its functional place in the whole. Find inspiration in this. If something is challenging to you, ask yourself where the lesson is in the challenge. If something sparks your interest, whatever that may be, use that as an invitation to become engaged in your reality. You may be surprised where it leads you.

4. Get Involved–No, Seriously, Get Involved.

The thing about MUM and Fairfield, is that there are lots of people doing all sorts of interesting things, and they tend to be the kind of people doing stuff that is interesting and for the improvement of society. These are exactly the kind of people who would be looking for other inspired, capable individuals to help them in their endeavors.

5. Make What You Want to See.

If you get here and have a vision of an exciting idea, project or solution to a problem and you don’t see it happening–make it happen! While we are on the topic of visions, spend some quality time with yourself envisioning what you see your ideal future to be like. Write it down. If you know what you want in your life, this makes it easier for you to create it for yourself. Don’t be afraid to get specific.

6. Find Your Niche.

You are new and I guarantee you will be meeting lots of wonderful people. You may spend the next few weeks or months getting to know all the types of students, who, like you, were attracted to coming to MUM for one reason or another. And though it may be difficult to think about this now, because you will be having so much fun, I definitely suggest keeping it in your mind to guide yourself more toward the folks that you click with the most. Not that there is anything wrong with the people you don’t click with, but the ones that fit with you will make up an invaluable source of support and harmonization in your life. Your life will be enriched by your complements.

7. Be Easy With Yourself.

Change takes time. The process of taking stock of what is going on around you, gathering information and coming to an understanding of all the mechanisms that make up a phenomenon also takes time.  Therefore, the solutions wont necessarily organize themselves together for you overnight. Be patient with the process, trust that you can find value in all the steps along the way, and let yourself off the hook a little if things start becoming too frustrating.

8. Honor Your Passions.

What sparks you, what excites you, what is interesting to you? Pay attention. And something that tends to get left out when talking about these kinds of things is: What comes easy to you? Embrace and elevate your natural skills. It’s good to challenge one’s self, but at the same time, don’t be afraid to use the skills that come easily to you. Use everything, remember?

9. Have Fun!

This could be one of the most widely circulated, yet most underrated pieces of advice out there. “Yeah, yeah, ‘have fun.’ Whatever, this is serious business! I’m here to save the planet! There is no time to think about having fun.” This is something you could be saying to yourself. But this is not true! It is your birthright as a human to live a rewarding, fulfilling and joyful life. If you find yourself undertaking a pursuit that is stressing you out too much, take a step back. Relax. Don’t be afraid to find the fun in it. Besides, the more you are enjoying yourself, the more successful you will find you will be at whatever you are trying to do.

10. Ask for What You Want.

Whether it be for help, advice, suggestions, clarification, or directions–anything!–if you want it, ask for it. You will have a more satisfying time here if you acknowledge your desires and honor them through asking questions. Please ask things of your teachers, TAs, administration, and fellow students. Find out who your faculty advisor is and meet with them as soon as you can to start getting advice on how to guide your educational action. Make good use of the plethora of expertise available to you as a student of Sustainable Living at MUM!

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And finally, last but not least, don’t forget to meditate. No one told me to say that, I’m serious with this one. Transcendental Meditation is a gift of learning to access and experience your true nature, and you can bring this gift anywhere with you in the world. It is a valuable practice to make habit!

Okay, New Students! I look forward to seeing you on campus, in classes, and around town, and I can’t wait to observe all the positive effects that you will have in our Sustainable Living community! And thanks for reading.

Now that you are here at MUM, allow my words to be your invitation to create the best possible educational experience while you are an SL student. Make it happen for yourself! Allow your time at MUM to be where you dive into life, and begin practices of living that pave the way for a more fulfilling life for yourself, and as a result, a better life for the planet.

As I start my second semester as an SL student here at MUM, and I think about You, the new student, just beginning your journey here, I have taken some time to reflect on what I have learned about my experience thus far, and I have come up with some suggestions that I wish someone had told me when I first got here.

It is my hope that you benefit from these, and from the very center of my heart, I welcome you to MUM!