During SDG@IAC, our series on sustainable development work in the Ivan Allen College, we have learned about the impressive level of engagement by students and faculty in the Ivan Allen College to address issues raised in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These efforts include work to address economic inequality, improve health and well-being, work toward more sustainable energy and climate policies, champion peace, justice, and inequality, and engage students in our classrooms and in the community.
But what does the future hold in store?
Without a doubt, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts has a defining role to play in Georgia Tech’s work developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.
“We have lenses of discovery that are unique to our practice and our disciplines and fields,” said Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “We have methods and modes of problem-solving that are also unique to us. We have means of engagement that are also very much informed by our methodologies. And then I would add to that we truly know how to work across many disciplines, many cultures, in pursuit of solving problems related to the human condition. This is why Ivan Allen College—primarily humanities and social sciences, with some STEM attributed—has such an essential role in these and many other issues.”
The ongoing strategic planning processes at the Institute and College levels provide an opportunity to help shape how Ivan Allen College will contribute to the campus-wide effort. Those efforts also will affect how resilience will play a role in research and education in the College in the years ahead.
“We should not divorce our curriculum from our research, our curriculum and curricular innovation can inform our research, and our research certainly informs innovation in our curriculum,” Husbands Fealing said. “So, when you’re looking at sustainability, and you’re looking at income inequality, gender equality, poverty, all the different aspects tied up in the 17 goals, those elements are primed for deepening our curriculum and the experiences our students have within our courses and expanding our capacity for experiential learning.”
Husbands Fealing also encouraged a focus not only on significant global issues and problems most often faced in the developing world but also on issues closer to home.
“Our students have a thirst not only to know more about each of these topics but also to put that education into practice in communities locally, communities abroad, and even our community here on campus,” she said.
“We often look at the SDGs and think, ‘That’s about other people,’ but on our own campus, we have a desire to make sure our students have equal access, that literally and figuratively we have to strive to ensure that no one goes hungry,” Husbands Fealing said.
She also pointed to unique learning opportunities afforded Georgia Tech students, such as the Kendeda Living Building.
“For months, we have been talking about the purpose and potential of a liberal arts college in a technologically focused university in the 21st century. The work we are doing and will continue doing on sustainable development is a testament to the unique interdisciplinary learning and research environment here in the College and the kinds of resources we have available to us as members of the Georgia Tech community,” she said.
Another area where the College excels is partnership, which is also one of the SDGs. Bringing different voices to the table with the goal of improving the human condition is something at which the Ivan Allen College excels Husbands Fealing said.
Given the emphasis in Georgia Tech’s strategic plan on so many areas that stand out as Ivan Allen College strengths leaves Husbands Fealing excited about the prospects for the future.
“I can’t wait to see what our faculty, students, and staff do next.”
To view all of our stories on sustainable development goal work, visit the project page at https://iac.gatech.edu/sdg