As an English major specializing in creative writing, Dream Dylan West (who goes by “Dylan” academically) saw the Semester at Lake Tahoe program at the Wayne L. Prim Campus as the perfect opportunity to finish writing her dystopian climate fiction piece. West found the Sustainability Certificate curriculum, exclusive to the Lake Tahoe campus, provided the education and background she needed.
“I was attempting to do my research on climate change, but it was the certificate and those courses that provided the footing to find the information that I needed,” West said.
The intersection of creative writing and sustainability
West participated in theinaugural Semester at Lake TahoeSustainability Certificate program during the Fall 2024 semester. The curriculum focuses on three main sustainability courses, one colloquium course and electives. At the end of the semester, students who finish the program are awarded with the certificate to apply to their future careers. As a student studying a non-environmental focused major, West found the Sustainability Certificate education helped her in her creative writing pursuits, along with relating to her minor, Black Studies. Above all, West took away the value of this education for her own knowledge and media literacy.
“One of the most influential talks for me was talking to the sustainability manager at Mount Rose ... As a huge tourist spot, there’s a lot of waste and water use. Hearing how quantiatiave the work of a sustainability manager is, made me realize how pertinent this certificate is,” West shared.
“One of the most influential talks for me was talking to the sustainability manager at Mount Rose ... As a huge tourist spot, there’s a lot of waste and water use."
Since receiving the Sustainability Certificate, West sees the knowledge she gained from the program as having a direct effect on her future work. The curriculum was an ideal supplment to her creative pursuits.
“I came into school with a clear picture for my future, but I’m starting to see it diverge into incorporating sustainability,” West said. It would be cool to work in the writing field for someone who needs a writer educated on the topics of climate change and sustainability.”
As for West’s cli-fi that brought her to the Lake Tahoe campus, the story follows a trans single father who is forced to relocate after a series of natural disasters. The piece dives into queer themes, found family, isolation, trans fatherhood and climate anxiety. West gravitated towards creative writing because she grew up as a storyteller. As the youngest child with a large age gap from her four siblings, West says she often depended on her own stories and world-building adventures to entertain herself.
Tying it together with the semester project
Part of the certificate is a sustainability-focused project at the semester’s end. West's project, “Queer Intersections of Sustainability’s Futurity” took inspiration from a video essay from Jessie Gender, a transgender creator, titled “Dreaming of a Queer Internet.” West pulled an analogy from the video essay, which discussed media and the lived queer experience, and related it to the Malcolm X quote: “If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. The progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they won't even admit the knife is there." In her project, West covered community building and inclusivity practices of the past and present and how they should inform sustainable practices today.
West built her project in teaching assistant professor Brennan Legasse’s course Sociology of Climate Change. Legasse recalls West’s ability to create vibrant work while teaching others that while acknowledgement is crucial, so is action.
"She was able to speak to both dismantling, as well as highlighting, these injustices and pronouncing them clearly through climate justice."
“The biggest takeaway was the salience of the legacies of injustice that percolate through local and global climate work. More specifically with Dylan, she was able to speak to both dismantling, as well as highlighting, these injustices and pronouncing them clearly through climate justice,” Legasse said.
During her 15 weeks in Tahoe, West says she made the most out of every day by the lake. She found both the warm weather of the early months of fall and the eventual snow of winter to be equally beautiful. One of her favorite memories from the semester was theSustainability Certificate ceremonywhere students received their medals. West said it felt like a full circle moment. For students interested in the Semester at Lake Tahoe program, West shares that it is a close-knit community.
West is on track to graduate this semester at the Spring 2025 Commencement ceremony with a degree in English and a minor in Black Studies. She is interested in continuing her education at the University to pursue a Masters in Creative Writing.
