Welcome, welcome!

I am Cassandra Ballert and I will be writing for the Roger M. Jones Journal this year. Please- take a seat and enjoy the ride!
 

My traveling friend

 Here’s a little background on who I am and what I’ll be doing:

I am from Commerce Township, Michigan which is seated in the north-east corner of the sprawling Detroit suburbs. In December 2011, I graduated from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) majoring in Chemical Engineering and German, minoring in International Engineering, and scholaring with the Graham Sustainability Institute. My academic path may seem a little disjointed, but trust me, it works (and I’ll get into that in another blog post). Between graduation and now, I had a quick stint working as an Environmental Engineer, but (alas!) I found myself going back to school to add yet another area of study to my collection: Philosophy.

Starting in October, I will be studying Environmental Ethics at the University of Augsburg in Germany.  Why specifically Environmental Ethics is a topic I plan to cover in my next post, as the reasoning is long and involves a story.
 

Sign poetry in Tahquamenon Falls

I will be using this blog space for a myriad of different things: reporting on experiences abroad, capturing feelings of a lonely traveler, developing my photography and editing skills, and keeping my brain fluid in English. :) My goal is to also keep the readers engaged, so I’m hoping to maintain short, but frequent posts and I genuinely encourage commenting. (So please do!)

Let’s take this trip together,
Cassie