A mind shift to a sustainable planet

Camila Das Gupta: "It's about our future, ensuring our survival, and the survival of all the species on Earth." (Nick Pearce Photo)

Camila Das Gupta believes changing the world involves every human and creature on the planet.

“It's not about saving the Earth really; the Earth will be here even if we’re not. It's about our future, ensuring our survival, and the survival of all the species on Earth,” explains the first-year social sciences and environment, sustainability and society student.

Ms. Das Gupta believes education is the best method to affect meaningful environmental and social change and create a global ‘shift in thinking.’ That’s why the 18-year-old Halifax native is dedicated to advancing environmental and sustainable education, from her involvement in summer camps to creating classroom initatives. For her dedication, she’s been awarded the Environmental Careers Organization (ECO) Canada Edit Petrovic Memorial Scholarship. 

The scholarship honours former ECO Canada staff member, Edit Petrovic, an advocate of environmental education who passed away in 2009. ECO Canada and the Petrovic family awarded Ms. Das Gupta a total of $5,000 in scholarship money for being similarly committed to environmental research in her academic career.

Ms. Das Gupta received the award in large part for co-creating a wide-reaching high school project, Mindshift, with six other students and three adult mentors, as part of an HRM Adventure Earth Centre program. Mindshift is a presentation aimed at educating Grade 10 science students on why environmental consciousness is important. The goal of these presentations, which are entertaining and involve some acting, is to ‘shift the mind’ of students towards more sustainable thinking.

“The program is designed to be delivered by Grade 11 and 12 students,” says Ms. Das Gupta, who still trains students to present Mindshift. The programs was implemented in five schools in its first year has grown to six schools this year.

Receiving the scholarship fortified Ms. Das Gupta’s desire to continue her studies in environmental education. “It's encouraging. I have been involved in these initiatives for a while, so to be recognized for the community work I do really helped empower me to continue in my field,” she says.

Ms. Das Gupta, who is a senior staff member with many HRM Adventure Earth Centre programs, hopes to pursue classes in interdisciplinary studies next year and broaden her knowledge of world issues. “I want learn about society – about how we got where we are and how to change it.”