Preston McNUlty socha Loomis Chaffee GESC
My Global & Environmental Identity
From the backwoods of Vermont to the cityscape of downtown Hartford or New York City, the environment acts as the backdrop to my lived experiences as I mature. I value the varying definitions of environment; I see the beauty of the natural environment in conversation with the complexity of the intellectual environment. Each environment I enter, I use it as an opportunity to learn and to more deeply understand how our worlds are more interconnected than ever. Because of our interconnectedness, I have learned the importance of active stewardship. We each have an individual responsibility to our environment; our individual actions, no matter how small, add up into our shared environment. We must first recognize the spirit of togetherness central to the protection and preservation of our natural world.
As our environments are intimately connected, we are also global members of one international family. This global nature embodies how environmental justice and action is best addressed as a team sport. We have individual responsibilities, but our steps are most powerful when we are organized and act as one unit. Global and environmental studies mean a shared understanding and a recognition of our power as a united group. It also embodies how our diversity when coalesced around a shared goal is one of our most powerful forces. This idea of straddling our divides is at the core of my global and environmental studies. We all may be drastically different, but we all share one Earth and one back yard. This year, I want to be a global and environmental citizen that has a legacy. Someone whose work lives on and continues to impact even when I leave the Island. I also want to take actions that are necessary and not just do for the sake of doing.
Global & Environmental Resume
GESC-designated Courses
- World History
- Orchestra
- Concert Choir
- CL Spanish Literature V
- CL European History
- CL English IV: Literature and the Environment
Elective Courses
- CL Spanish IV: We focused on the application of the Spanish language. We analyzed the socio-cultural perspectives of the Spanish-speaking world and how they connect to our daily lives. Using native sources, we studied everything from architecture to the greatest painters.
GESC Experiential Education
Schmidt Vocal Institute 2023: Over two weeks, I worked with other high school singers as we prepped and performed the entire classical canon of repertoire. Importantly, we focused on the dying Appalachian music of America. Singing these traditional hymns, we analyzed the cross-cultural diversity of these pieces in their creation and performance.
Model United Nations: I attended various Model UN conferences where we debated and passed resolutions on a wide variety of topics, from deforestation to the French Revolution. We role play different countries. To do so accurately, we research their policies and stances to try to come to real resolutions.
Learning Artifacts
GESC Coursework
- CL Lit and the Environment... Here is a picture of Thoreau's Cabin-- we analyzed how the craft of his cabin helped bridge the gap between the human world and the natural world, questioning to what extent we truly live in separate spheres. I really enjoyed seeing how conscious construction facilitates deeper, intersectional thinking. This connects to "Take action" since we have to decisive enough to see how our world's intersect; it will not just appear to us. Likewise, this also falls in line with "seek understanding," especially as we have to seek out how our worlds can be together and our worlds can be apart.
Here is an essay I wrote predicting what a future Loomis would look like in a climate-changed world. It was a great thought exercise where I learned that you have to really understand the past and present to even begin thinking about what is to come! Everything is linked. This connects to "Develop Skills." One has to be able to communicate their ideas thoughtfully in order for others to follow their mission. One's great idea is no good if it can't be shared. The essay: https://loomischaffeeschool-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/pmcnultysocha_internal_loomis_org/EUDg6i7ymh1HqS-A5iOx6fkBq9y2gI8TlPQPEbWxrb7_sg?e=TE3P5L
GESC Seminars
- Visiting the Islamic Center of Central Connecticut, I experienced one of my first true “culture shocks,” in the place I least expected it—in my own backyard. First, I was taken aback that all the members of the youth group were young women our age and a little bit older. Also, I was not expecting them to follow Islam to the strict of an extent. I have Muslim friends, and I have traveled the globe seeing all these different levels of religious practice. I would have never imagined so a diverse refugee and immigrant population, adhering to the principles so strictly, in New Britain, CT. I was also appreciated how Maha was not afraid of highlighting her struggles with her work. Often times in these community engagement endeavors, we hear about the glowing successes and community impact, but rarely do we see the steps that it takes to get there. Her work with Middlebury College, the UN, and here in New Britain showed me the multi-dimensional leadership required that often goes unrecognized. Chatting with the young women, they acted like any other teenager- excited, slightly nervous, and intrigued. This is the most powerful connection that we have together and how we broke preconceived stereotypes. We have the save human, teenager fundamentals we just come from different countries, different belief systems, and speak a different mother tongue.
Ameen Mokdad’s The Curve harmonized the ever-present stories of struggle and survival and showcased how these common emotions can coexist. His interdisciplinary performance inspired me to think about how I can fit more mediums of artistic expression into my own senior performances. Speaking about how all of his music was recorded on his computer except one, he emphasized how important it is for music to be recorded and to be remembered, so it can have a life after ours. This speaks to the sharedness of music and how this work all links back to the practice of working for the common good. When he talked about his conversations with his neighbor who wanted to join ISIS, Mokdad underscored the global power of music, as it can connect cross-culturally and cross-ideologically, and how it is a tool for positive progress. This redefined my definition of solutions or how we define success in face of a problem. A conversation or the creation of a piece of music can function as a solution and still have enduring, positive consequences. I was struck by the work of Cuatro Puntos and how they feature underrepresented artists to share global stories. One can benefit the common good by acting as a curator or a steward of new music-making. One does not always need to be the creator, but the act of helping creators create is a valorous one in itself.
GESC Electives
Above is the LC Varsity Swim Team which I captain. Swimming builds an immeasurable amount of grit and forces you to keep going even when you do not want to. There is no better way to build a team. This idea of building a team connects to "enhance understanding" from the matrix. One cannot enhance their own or others understanding without building a strong relationship with the other person first. Relationships and mutual understanding our necessary to enhance our learning.
GESC Experiential Education
Capstone Project
Learning in Harmony
Project rationale
Our project aims to enhance the connection between GESC-designated classes and the themes the GESC promotes through the Matrix. This product is an exploration of 12 GESC classes we have previously taken and examples of the performing arts that connect to the individual class syllabi. We have also produced examples of activities that could be completed either in the classroom or as a homework assignment that would help connect materials in these classes to themes in the GESC matrix.
Target Audience
Following discussion, critique, and revision by music and HPR faculty, the purpose of this capstone is for teachers to use this as a class resource to facilitate interdisciplinary thinking and connections in their class. For instance, students can use the resources outside of class as homework to prepare for in-class discussion on how their current material connects to these performing art themes. Likewise, if teachers want to “get out of the textbook” for some time these musical resources support cross-cultural connection.
Project Process
This capstone underwent many revisions and adjustments to reach its final form. Initially, I wanted to build a music seminar series with opportunities to work with professional artists and inspire student performers. From there, we would work to build community through music. We then adjusted to a more musical activist lens and finally ended with a classroom focused, applied music capstone. This project has helped me to understand how one can be actionable with their work and have a lasting impact through their capstone. Also, I learned how to balance size of project and your time constraints. By focusing on the pillars that ground the Loomis experience, this capstone aims to enhance our educational experience in the classroom by fostering more interdisciplinary and connected learning.
Project Reflection
There are many matrix connections. For instance, in“Enhance Understanding,” our project connects to “analyze connections between local and global issues” as well as “recognize and evaluate local and global implications of individual and shared actions.” Our project emphasizes community-centered educational communities inspired by shared music. Through this community we also “develop skills” to apply a new, musically-informed “global lens to critical thinking and problem solving exercises.” These skills have a lasting impact long after we leave Loomis and represent some of my best growth during these projects. With our new skills, we can then “seek knowledge” by investigating how our interconnected world shapes each other– how encounter and exchange informs our culture. Finally, our project helps students to “take action” with the new information they have learned. The capstone empowers students to take ownership over this global artistic community and lead with a deeper, shared understanding about our interconnectedness. I see this project being used in classroom discussions and on days where teachers desire to “get out of the textbook” and investigate how their subject matter directly connects to the music world. I look forward to deeper discussions about how despite our cultural differences we were all made and formed in conversation with one another. This project help to solidify the importance of interconnected, multidisciplinary learning in our school, inspiring generations of pensive students to come
GESC Reflection
In my Statement of Intent, I set out to embrace the discomfort of new experiences, widen my perspectives, and analyze how our cultural encounter and exchange connects all of us. Through this project, my perspective on how to have an impact has most definitely grown. One’s impact cannot always be easily quantified. It also does not have to follow a traditional set of bounds defining what is accepted or what is not. There is flexibility in having an impact. Also, impact’s relevance extends beyond the moment. Impact can have a legacy and extend long after the time in which it was created. Also, impact does not have to follow traditional bounds. Impact is not limited to “showiness” or presenting to a room of hundreds of people. Impact can mean genuine relationships with a couple of students that results in lasting, positive change. These relationships ultimately last and transform one’s view on global or environmental studies.