Summer Reading
Accepted Undergraduate Students
Welcome to ESF! We are looking forward to your participation in the academic community. We are a diverse community of scientists, activists, engineers, writers and landscape architects, yet we share the common goal of exploring and protecting the natural environment. In order to provide common ground for discussions among diverse disciplines, all new students at ESF are required to complete a reading assignment during the summer before arriving on campus.
This year, the ESF summer reading book will be: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. You can order the book through your local bookstore or from any of the online bookstores such as amazon.com. For more information on the book please visit the website.
In September, you will be asked to attend a campus-wide discussion of McDonough and Braungart's book. To prepare for that discussion, we suggest that you take notes in some way. You could underline and wrote notes in the margins of the book, you could make an outline on a pad of paper, or you could keep a computer file in which you take note of what you think are the most thought-provoking ideas in the book.
In Cradle to Cradle, McDonough and Braungart argue that the conflict between industry and the environment is not an indictment of commerce but an outgrowth of purely opportunistic design. We are hoping you come to campus ready to discuss their ideas -- the data, the premise, and the critical impact of their argument on how you might think about your career at ESF and beyond.
Because we have a close relationship with the Syracuse University community, we are asking that you also read the book that all incoming first year students at Syracuse University are assigned. The book this year is: Long Way Gone: Memories of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah.
Here is what Time Magazine said about Beah's book: "A breathtaking and unselfpitying account of how a gentle spirit survives a childhood from which all innocence has suddenly been sucked out. It's a truly riveting memoir."
Faculty and staff have been given the same reading assignments so you should not be surprised when professors use these books in the classroom in the fall. They will assume that you have read both books.
We hope that you have a productive and relaxing summer and we look forward to the new ideas and perspectives you can contribute to the campus community!