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LINKS TO INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL
Department of Integrated Ecology
GRADUATE STUDENT CO-OPERATIVE GRADUATE WEBSTRING SUPPORT GROUP
The M.S. Degree Waiver I recently asked my friend Lois "What would you think
and do if you saw a person standing in a bus station suddently
begin to swing her hands and move her feet wildly while twisting
her head and body and gasping for air?" I mention this incident because we usually each know and value ourselves and our relationships based upon the background or environment that we are in. For example, I knew a medicine man who was well respected and vital to his tribe. Howeveer, he was a drunk on the city street when not playing his medicine role with his people. At the same time I knew a college professor who obtained his Ph.D. and teaching position by being knowledgeable about what a medicine man does. However, he could not do these things himself. The Natural Systems Thinking Process is designed to be a valuable component and addition to most professions and ways of life. The MS waiver is for people who can focus on their lives in relationship to NSTP and its potential. It is the opportunity for you to document that you are already functioning on a Master's level of competency in your specialty area. It says you want to learn to function on a Doctoral level by adding the goals and purpose of The Natural Systems Thinking Process (NSTP) to your speciality area, or apply your expertise to a new area that incorporates NSTP. Goals and Process The purpose of Project NatureConnect at IGE is to research and offer nature-connected psychology and education that helps the United Nations meet its manifest for environmentally sound personal growth and social justice.* IGE achieves its purpose through providing training in Webstring Science: The Natural Systems Thinking Process (NSTP.) Involvement in NSTP helps people in most areas solve the personal, social and environmental problems that result from the difference between the ecologically disconnected way we learn to think and how nature works. To credibily achieve its goals, the Graduate Student Co-operative (GSCo-op) participants pledge to help each other and associated Universities achieve excellent NSTP academic and economic responsibility by exercising the sense of reason. The Waiver Petition Petitions for a waiver of the Masters Degree are reasonable and granted when a Ph.D. candidate documents that they have the training and ability to operate and meet their personal and professional goals on a Master's level. In formal education, this consists of 30 graduate units at 45 hours of learning/unit, about 1500 hours. In conjunction with mutual support from an Co-op guide group, it is the responsibility of an SCo-op candidate to submit evidence that shows they meet the criteria for obtaining an M.S. waiver. Most candidates who have expertise in some area usually have years of training and experience in that area. Otherwise they would not have expertise. They usually qualify for the MS waiver if (as if in a "swimming pool background,") they view their expertise with respect to the requirements of an MS degree. The question to ask yourself is this: Do I now function in my area of expertise as well as, or better than a person just coming out of college with an MS degree in this area. For example: If you are the successful parent of three children, are you now as qualified to raise a child as would be a person who just graduated from college with an MS degree in Parenthood but who never had a child? Are you more qualified? Would your present awareness of NSTP and its potential make you a better parent tomorrow? If so, you have probably obtained the equivilent of an Parenthood MS degree (1500 learning hours) in the College of Hard Knocks. What you need to do is document this. What "unofficial courses" did you take, what did you learn? Be honest. If you think you have a defeciency in some aspect of the MS requirements, you may contract to fulfill that defeciency while in your Doctoral program.
The challenge of the M.S. waiver
is to take the After completing them, document that you can incorporate NSTP into your personal field of expertise as well as, or better than, a student first coming out of college with an MS degree. It is the sole responsibility of a candidate to logically submit reasonable evidence that shows they meet the criteria for obtaining an M.S. waiver as described above. The Petition for an MS Waiver consists of a convincing integration of the candidate's background and experiences as follows: 1. Cover with
2. Opening Petition Statement that conveys why the candidate believes they have equivilent education and the dedication that enables them to constructively utilize, research and teach Applied Ecopsychology or Integrated Ecology NSTP on a Master's level. 3. Table of Contents that locates by page number the various sections of the document. 4. Candidate's Overview and Integration Statement Convincingly show you presently operate on a Master's level of competency personally and professionally with respect to NSTP** and/or your profession or hobby. This statement is like an equivilency of your MS project or thesis with the subject being "I Work on an NSTP Master's Level of Competency" Make it as strong as possible. Prove your point by the way you develop and organize this paper. Show how many hours you have in your field and compare them to the 1500 hours required in an MS program. An organized way to present this is as follows: A. Familiarize yourself with NSTP by doing the Orientation Course and Attractions and Intelligence course as stated above Descriptions of the degree program at Greenwich are located at http://www.rockisland.com/~process/ For some, the information at
B. List the Greenwich MS courses as below. (Descriptions of the courses are located at http://www.rockisland.com/~process/mscourse.html
C. Equivilents
D List and assign credit hours to other appropriate Life Experiences E. List and Total all your learning credit hours in C and D. E If possible, submit at least one letter of recommendation that states you perform at a Master's level in your area of competency. F. Name two books you have read that have assisted your learning in this area.
5. Create a personal archive of references and documentation that have been referred to in the previous sections including samples of work done, copies of certificates etc. when possible. Be prepared to have this archive examined, if and when so requested.
6. Submit two letters of personal recommendation that convey your character, honesty, adequacy and ability to relate cooperatively. 7. Identify areas where you feel you could improve and will continue to educate yourself to become skilled on an Master's level. 8. Additional Information may be added here that you think will be helpful in making this equivalency determination Stop when you feel you have left no stone unturned. You may submit up to 30 pages. Many candidates have been granted the waiver with only 5 pages in Part 4 9. Submit you Parts 1-4 waiver document as an
email to the GSCo-op waivers group <mswaivers@egroups.com>
for comment and improvement. After getting an OK from the group
send it to Dr. Cohen <nature@pacificrim.net>.
SAMPLE CHECKLIST FOR "C-1" ABOVE
* NSTP Science and Rationale: The web of life is a living global ecosystem of which people are part. To be part of a system one must in some way be in communication with the system. The Natural Systems Thinking Process enables a person to restore their inherent ability to consciously register and respond to communication with nature. It accomplishes this by bringing NIAL into our awareness the nameless, intelligent sensory attraction, webstring loves that we share with the web of life. 1. There is an intelligent, age old, purpose and non-verbal process that sustains nature's web of life and its members, including people. That purpose and process is to support life in equilibrium. In this regard there are no known substitutes for the real thing. 2. To connect with nature, relationships must be entered by gaining consent and measured by their long term effects on global life in balance. 3. When we provide material, social, or financial rewards for nature-disconnecting stories we become psychologically bonded to these stories and their destructive effects. 4. Things that experience this imbalance and its effects suffer. 5. To reverse our imbalance and its discontents, continuing, thoughtful, shared, sensory contacts with webstring attractions in natural areas reconnect our thinking with nature's ways. This helps us produce responsible personal, social and environmental relationships. 6. People experience webstrings as sensory attractions; uncomfortable sensations are webstrings that attract us to seek additional webstring attractions and further participate. 7. When people think in consent and connection with webstrings they experience a global consciousness that leads to unity at every level of endeavor.
8. Nature can be seen as a conscious process that organizes, preserves and regenerates itself to produce an optimum of life, diversity and balanced cooperation without producing garbage, war, madness or death as we know it. Nature's way of expressing love prohibits the pollution, abusiveness and stress that deteriorate life. Nature can be a valuable source of "Higher Power."
LINKS TO INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL
Institute of Global Education
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Project NatureConnect Institute of Global Education,
Special NGO consultant to the
United Nations Economic and Social CouncilP.O. Box 1605 Friday Harbor, WA 98250
360-378-6313
www.ecopsych.com
Dr. Micheal J. Cohen, Director
send email