Step 1: Buy a bike. Step 2: Join a choir. Step 3: Get to work. Thanks to already-ample experience in engaging with new contexts, James Souder ’09 knew the best way to find home in Amsterdam six years ago was to jump right in.
For Souder, who has three older sisters who also attended EMS, jumping right in was nothing new. In high school, he was involved in “a bit of everything,” from orchestra and jazz band to Touring Choir and Chamber Choir, from student council to cross country and track. He recalls days when, between morning Mandarin classes and evening musical rehearsals, he spent close to sixteen hours at
the school.
In his move up the hill to Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), Souder majored in Environmental and Social Sustainability. He explored how to think about meeting people’s needs without exceeding environmental limits – a “wicked problem” with complicated answers.
PROFESSIONAL LIFE – BETWEEN SOCIAL AND TECHNICAL
After spending a year in Pittsburgh, Souder moved to Washington, D.C. to coordinate their chapter of the Food Recovery Network. He then traveled to Burkina Faso with Mennonite Central Committee, using his creative photography skills to document practices of farmers dealing with a changing climate.
Now deep in the social side of environmental issues, Souder began to feel that without technical knowledge and systems-thinking, some of the solutions he had worked on were simply “bandaids.” This led him to Yale University to study industrial ecology and green design.
Souder’s newly-gained expertise in the ins and outs of material production got him excited about rethinking systems. In 2018, he was hired by Metabolic, a project-based environmental consulting company in Amsterdam that works to create sustainable systems by working with governments and manufacturers. Souder quickly became a senior consultant, responsible for encouraging circular systems, in which early stages of the production of material goods value “higher R strategies.” These strategies include regenerating resources used in products, rethinking product design, and repurposing parts of the product during its use.
FINDING BALANCE
But while Souder felt his consulting work was important, he also began to recognize that he was caught up in a “go, go, go, mentality…again.” This led him to reconsider something that had before felt so natural: What does it mean to “jump right in”?
Souder says that, like the system of material production, we as humans only have a certain amount of energy. He adds, “We need to be in tune with what gives us energy, what takes our energy, and how we can best use our gifts and skills to contribute in a positive way to society.”
BACK TO THE “WHY”
Now, it is Souder’s goal to maintain this new-found balance between, on one hand, the excitement of passions and wanting to be involved, and on the other, taking care of himself. He reflects, “I’ve been focusing on doing things for me, not what I think others want me to do, and really blossoming and growing in new directions.” This mindfulness mirrors that which he is calling for from industry: “How are we making choices?” he asks. “From a grounded place or a trying-to-keep-up-with-things place?”
Souder hopes to continue to ease himself back into the social side of his work as Communications Lead for the Industries Consulting division at Metabolic. He hopes to continue to find ways to “strengthen bonds between people at a local scale” while remembering a focus he appreciated about his education at EMS: “We are global citizens and part of something bigger.”
Speaking of circular systems, Souder says his love of music – nurtured and grown at EMS – has been one thing that has kept him going and lifted his spirits. He’s even had a chance to play his soprano saxophone, which was purchased his senior year of high school, with his choir. “It has sort of come full-circle,” he says with a smile.
