This spring, we launched an application for C3: Campus to Careers Camp, C2C Fellow’s first ever second-round professional training. Fellows were asked to explain, in a short video, why they wanted to attend further training on Social Innovation and Leadership, or Leading a Political Campaign.
While we were unable to hold C3 this year, the applicants’ videos stood out as examples of innovative solutions to sustainability challenges, and we wanted to be able to share them with you. Learn more about our Fellows and their ideas in this series of short profiles.
Will Mitchell grew up in Washington DC with his parents, 3 older brothers, a dog Winnie, and a group of friends he’s kept close to this day. Always seeing the wonder and beauty in the world, he’s an adventurer at heart and has loved sharing his excitement with those around him. He loves having conversations on snowy chairlifts about deep unanswerable questions, among other things. Will attended a C2C Fellows workshop in Oberlin, OH in 2012.
“A little about myself: Born, raised, and still live in Washington, D.C. I have also called State College, PA my home (Penn State University), and have called the MV Explorer my home during a 4-month circumnavigation of the world on the program Semester at Sea. My most transformative experiences include that voyage during the spring of 2010 and a solo bike tour adventure across the US West Coast during the summer of 2011. However, I’ve come to understand that most of my experiences have shaped me in some way, large or small, and I wouldn’t trade any of them away.
“I currently run a small meat distribution company in Washington, D.C. called Tenleytown Meat Company. It is an exciting endeavor nearly a year old, still very much in its early stages and teaching me so very much about people, my community, and my personal goals. It is forcing me to dive deep down into the rabbit hole of sustainable business (especially with respect to meat in specific and marketing in general). I also am an assistant crew coach for my high school’s crew team, help on several farms in the area, and take time to hike, snowboard, read, and play soccer and ultimate whenever I can. I start part time at Patagonia’s DC location this Monday and couldn’t be more excited.
“The complexities of the world’s “problems” (clean water, stable climate, steady, healthy communities, personally fulfilling lives and livelihoods, the list does not end) are evolving and confuse me now more than ever. The connections between all facets of our lives and our world have become so thick and tangled that I just can’t establish much of a concrete guidebook of how to be, who to help, and where and at what levels to fight for whatever it is I think I should be fighting for, essentially, where to invest my life. Over the past few years, the clarity and enthusiasm that fighting for a sustainable future has given me have led to a fair bit of doubt and wariness in my actions. However, I’m incredibly grateful for this new road as it is forcing me to simplify my life and reevaluate the journey ahead. The core realities of sustainability still seem to hold true – there are physically unavoidable limits in this world and for humans to thrive, we must learn to live in such a way that doesn’t outstrip the Earth’s capacity to sustain us. What has changed is my perspective on how best to realize a human society that fills that requirement, how centralized or anarchistic should it be, who, if anybody, should be making the calls, and how, if there are dominant power centers of institutions or individuals, should they attain, maintain, and assert their power.
“I definitely have more thoughts, quotes, articles, books etc. regarding advice than is good for me, and surely more than the folks in my life need, hence one reason for simplicity. To pick one is tough, but it would have to be the message in Bela Fleck’s Sojourn of Arjuna.”
How Will describes C2C Fellows in 3 words – “Empowering, Hopeful, Intentional”
Thanks Will!
