Capstone LIPD - Core Report

At this juncture of completion that marks the end of the first year and the beginning of the capstone year of my MSc program, in which I have moved back to the place where I studied for an undergraduate degree to study solar energy and be close to family, I am confident in saying that I am on track to achieving my personal and professional goals, and, indeed, that I have already achieved many others.  I have such a strong will to bring about positive and practical social change, that I sometimes lose sight of my sphere of influence and how proud I should be that I have already made so many positive and practical changes within myself and my immediate surroundings.  At this time last year, I was concurrently enrolled in a meditation course, Ecology of Leadership, an Urban Permaculture Design Course and the MSc program for which this essay is written.  This year, I am in a solar energy course and working full time in urban landscaping, as well beginning my capstone year of the MSc program.  I can feel the pulsation of inward and outward development that is leading towards a career and an impactful life’s purpose. 

I did not start at a point with a clear pathway, however, I feel as though I have always had clear intentions to work for the ecological well-being of the planet as well as environmental education and social justice.  What was once muddled anger compressed into jaded depression when I was not walking in stride with my authentic-self has opened up into another world of integrity and purpose.  I was stuck in a business world in which I did not associate with the natural world, and this conflict of interests profoundly affected my personal well-being.  I was also not ‘walking-the-walk’ when it came to working towards being the change that I wanted to see in the world, so I was feeling stuck in personal, financial and ethical dilemmas that I was uncertain how to remedy while still being able to achieve my goals and dreams.  In an almost surreal and subconscious flash of a few years that has tended to be filled with more intense struggles than many previous years have been, I now realize that I have changed, and that my education, goals, and finances are now in harmonious alignment.  Self-transformation has therefore been a major element of my personal learning and unlearning process during this MSc program.   

Now that I have overcome the part of myself that did not know how to be an effective activist and was hammered by the overwhelming issues that we all face, I am ready to design and activate a pathway that makes the most sense for me personally, a pathway that is my own niche in this broad and complex world.  This is why I look toward works created by historical figures such as Buckminster Fuller, Alan Watts and Nikola Tesla, because they represent the artist-scientists of the past that have left relics of such magnitude so as to effectively achieve the type of personal, social and cultural change that I am dedicated to. 

It was not clear to me last year how to go about obtaining a solar energy certification, in order to be able to design and install solar systems.  Nor was it clear to me last year how to strategically work towards a source of livelihood intertwined with practicing ecological design.  However, with a passionate internal drive, I set out to complete intensive courses in amazing locations, where I discovered and absorbed internal and external ecologies in-depth.  Ensuring the cows had water and a hot electric fence for protection from predators overnight in the chilly and rugged Rocky Mountains, documenting Sustainable Vocations for Youth in the sage-brush filled high desert of California, handing out greens to strangers on the streets of San Francisco from the permaculture community garden and planting guanábana trees on Panamanian Caribbean islands have all been part of my learning and unlearning process of the first year of my MSc program with Gaia University.  After this surge of self-motivated ecological understanding, I began to view bigger pictures of social structures as well as smaller synergetic details down to the level of personal decision making through the lenses of patterns and integrative design science, feeling closer to actually embodying and living the knowledge that each new moment truly is an interdependent yet spontaneous new opportunity that I can choose to dance with (or not).  With this renewed sense of connection with my authentic-self after rambling, documenting and adventuring through the Mountain West with my best friend and Central America with my lover; the decision to pursue photovoltaics, aquaponics, and other vocational aspects of ecological design to satisfy the question of what to do for a right-livelihood became clear.  

I still have many hurdles to jump, and obstacles to overcome, and I am happy to experience each new challenge with my whole heart and self.  I am grateful that I have designated myself as a life-long learner dedicated to social change and ecological rehabilitation.  I am grateful that my hard work has paid off, and that others now view me as someone who practices in earnest what was once a mere talking point.  I can feel my progress when my parents jokingly refer to me as, “Sustainable Dan,” or when my good friend makes it a point to introduce me to people she respects who work in similar ecological industries so that we may network.  I feel my progress when the undocumented immigrant co-workers of mine raise their eyebrows when I tell them in Spanish to "guardar las ramas de roble para que podemos cultivar hongos japoneses."  I feel my personal development and transition to adult-hood, as my personal, professional and project oriented goals are approaching achievements such as Master’s degrees, solar energy installation certifications and contractor’s licenses. 

At the core of what I want to design for myself, is an ecology of skills, goals, projects and experiences that will most effectively bring about positive and practical changes to my sphere of influence.  I do so by adjusting my personal attitude, and relating to the world through nature connection, metaphor and creativity.  I do so by studying to become a solar energy technician, and sweating under the sun installing urban landscapes as a source of income and knowledge that provides physical, mental and spiritual stimulation.  I do so by remaining strong in the face of death and disorder, in order to act as a backbone of support for my friends and family who are in need.  I also do so by knowing when to stop working so hard and giving myself breaks and down-time, as I ride my bike along the ocean-front-pathway and express creatively through photography all that I am feeling in digital-light-impressions freezing moments forever. 

All of these aforementioned notions and ideas make up a diverse iteration of what strategic leadership means to me.  To make complex decisions and weigh options responsibly.  To be able to navigate and negotiate personal and professional goals, while also feeling privileged to maneuver daily minutiae as well, for, after all, what matters most is how well you walk through the fire.  I remember staring at this title in my friend’s room and ruminating about, “what it means to me.”  I believe that what the title of this book means to me is parallel to how I would describe the notion of strategic leadership: to dynamically maintain integrity through an ever-changing flow of life and death. 

I have gone through the hard work of aligning myself with my personal integrity and purpose.  Whereas last year, I pointed out that my intention was explicitly to not continue doing what I had previously been doing (online advertising), now I am relieved to be in a position where I am already currently living within my personal pathway design.  For example, I made it a professional goal to be able to install solar energy systems, and therefore I intend to learn about this topic, and I am currently enrolled in a solar energy course that will end in June of this year.  In addition I want to, “Be a Permaculture Designer,” and I now work with a landscaping company and learn new building, irrigation and planting techniques every day.  Therefore, it does not necessarily make sense for me to draft a pathway that is separate from my life, but rather to show a model for this particular period of my path, to represent the boundaries that I am pushing in a logical way that makes sense to others.  

I have a fairly clear picture of what I would like my capstone output packets to look like and include.  One of the capstone project outputs that I will create is a photo-essay entitled Ecological Design: An Inter-American Dialogue, which will cover my kickstarter project, my time in Costa Rica and Panamá, and my gallery opening and presentation of the completed project.  I envision a book that is a mixture of elements and genres, such as the photo-essay combined with traveling historical fiction, reminiscent of Steinbeck’s Journey to the Sea of Cortez with Ed Ricketts; except replacing inter-tidal ecology and award-winning fiction with the study of ecologically balanced design of human habitats and a passion for adventure!  I also hope to have an opening party with friends and family, where I can discuss the project, distribute the book and display framed photographs.  I have been engaged with this project since the summer of 2011, when I worked on a biodynamic farm in Tennessee and also worked at the Omega Institute in New York.  

However, I have not decided clearly that I would like for this photographic writing project to be one of my capstone output packets.  Perhaps instead of this book idea, I will present a permaculture design for the Havasupai Nation of Arizona that includes micro-hydro and solar power, as well as aquaponic food production.  The Havasupai nation has captured my imagination and wonder ever since I first heard about these people of the blue water and went to visit during my undergraduate studies at UC Santa Cruz.  I recently reconnected with a good friend of mine, with whom I co-authored a report on the Hualapai People during a Native People’s of North America cultural anthropology course.  The original report that we did together is still intact, and includes photographs that I shot with a 35mm film camera and processed in the university dark room after our return.  If not for an output packet, then definitely for a future design project, I would like to propose to the Hualapai a version of their village with integrative ecological design for food, jobs and energy. 

Another project output packet will be on Photovoltaics as well as Solar Powered Aquaponics.  In this output packet I will discuss the class, CEM-162: Photovoltaic Design & Installation, that I am currently taking at Cabrillo College at the new Solari Center in Watsonville, CA.  There are many facets to photovoltaic design that can enhance the permaculture design sector map and understanding of the solar sector about which I am excited to share.  I also plan on collaborating with Teryl Chapel, a fellow MSc student at Gaia University who is very knowledgeable in Aquaponics design and construction.  I have peer-reviewed Teryl’s output packet on Aquaponics, and I hope to consider him as a Capstone Project Mentor for the Aquaponics design elements of this output packet.  Teryl and I have also discussed the creation of an outdoor education and vocational training center that is also an active aquaponics farm in an urban setting.  

I am finding myself in the position that I have so many thought provoking ideas of how to apply permaculture principles to the macro & microcosms of human habitat, that I have come to broaden the scope of my capstone output packets from formerly narrowly focused topics such as, Net-Zero Laundromat, to now more broad concepts like, Net-Zero Business Model Design, which will include the “Earth-Ship-ification” of rural gas stations, Zone-1 Kitchen Machines, the Net-Zero Laundromat & Juice Bar, Solar Aquaponics, and an ecologically sound Permaculture Design Consulting business.  I feel as though these business model designs will become a fundamental aspect of the rich ecology of the permaculture design and consultation business itself.  I hope to have my final capstone project output packet focus on what it means to be a permaculture designer in an urban setting and how to make a living through ecological design science.