Assignment 2: Interview with Nikki Mammano

Senior, Nikki Mammano, transferred before her sophomore year from Sweet Briar College to Chatham University’s sustainability school. However, after taking courses in economics, she realized that she was more interested in the social aspect of sustainability as well as economic justice. At the time, there were no focuses in the sustainability school at the time, so she majored in economics and minored in sustainability and political science instead. When she was studying sustainability, she realized that “sustainability started teaching me more about my passions…I felt by learning about more and taking more classes focused on economics, I’d be learning more about capitalism in a way so in the future I can take that knowledge and systematically learn and evolve the problematic system. Then I could take that and put it into a sustainability lens.” On top of her actual degree, Nikki spends her time on her club, Chatham Student Power, as well as competing as a ballroom dancer.

As far as studying strategies, Nikki talked to me about the difference between popular education versus banking education. These are different teaching styles. In the banking education system, the teacher simply fills a file cabinet with information. This is in comparison to the popular education system using critical thinking strategies to engage students by adapting their knowledge into a real-life use. Nikki stated that “I tune out if I don’t understand the why to things” and you become “detached from a subject if you can’t fit it into everyday reality”. She said that learning the different styles of teaching has helped her study. On top of that, she recommended to write things down in your own words, try to teach someone else about it, and then discussing it with others.

Nikki has an extensive resume that shows her full range of interests and how she’s already taken steps towards pursuing them. This year, Nikki worked at the Women’s institute for Chatham, but before this, she explains that “opportunities presented themselves in an organic way that was not forced.” She toured a power plant her sophomore year with Chatham, and she met a Sierra Club chapter representative, Randy Francisco. He talked about their Beyond Coal campaign and brought awareness to what Cheswick was doing, which fascinated Nikki enough to ask him for his contact information. This led to an internship at the Sierra Club, which worked as 3 internship credits at Chatham. She said “my passions were helping me to network and create my own opportunities. From this, she worked with Nextgen climate for voter registration, Pennsylvania Student Power network, and then was offered a fellowship from the Climate Justice Fellow. She reminded me that “if you’re not fully passionate about something, it’s going to be more difficult to stay fully invested in something,” but “when you’re excited, more opportunities present themselves because you’re fully invested and it is easier to stay present in something you’re passionate about”.

In Jessica Vallee’s, “Not Your Average Orientation: Sustaining Students’ Momentum” posted on Chatham Business Insight, Chatham University welcomed the graduate students who are completing a dual degree MBA/Master of Science in Sustainability. They talked about how all their experiences lead them to where they are, and it has been an organic experience. Just like Nikki has expressed.

Not Your Average Orientation: Sustaining Students’ Momentum. (2018, January 22). Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://blogs.chatham.edu/businessblogs/2018/01/22/not-your-average-orientation-sustaining-students-momentum/