Exchange students learn about sustainability — and local customs

Over the course of the exchange, the visiting students partnered with Concordia undergraduates minoring in sustainability to participate in workshops and co-write the final report.

Schade says that these collaborations resulted in some fascinating discussions, considering the students all come from diverse academic backgrounds.

“On the surface, it sounds kind of crazy to put together artists and scientists, but, actually, it’s amazing how well they can work on a set theme,” she says. “It’s quite phenomenal. I think that interdisciplinary work is going to be the way that most people will be working in the future, because problems such as sustainability are so complicated that there cannot be just one approach to them.”

Theresa Schmiedl, a visiting graduate studying international food business and consumer studies at Fulda University, says that the opportunity to gain an international perspective was the first thing that drew her to the program.

“It’s really interesting to go into the communities,” she says. “In Germany, managing waste, for example, is based on the governmental federal level, and, here, a lot more of those sustainability projects are in communities.”

Schmiedl finds that since her field has an international focus, getting the chance to gain knowledge into how sustainability is approached outside of Germany has been an invaluable experience.

Anthea Woehrstein, an undergraduate student from Fulda, couldn’t agree more.

“I was interested in how a different country or culture tries to support sustainability and how the term sustainability was defined here in Canada and in Montreal,” she says.

Woehrstein’s most memorable moment was the day the group visited the composting site.

“Here in Montreal, people have the opportunity to bring their waste to a place where it’s transformed into compost, and, in Germany, we don’t have that — so that was new to us.”

Learn more about the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability.