-----.........

_
SONOMA Environmental Studies and Planning
School of Social Sciences
1801 East Cotati Avenue 707 .664.2306
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609 www.sonoma.edu/ensp

Dear Hiring Committee:

I am writing to recommend my former student,Joshua Brown-Herrera. Josh was oneof my

advisees during his degree work at Sonoma State, as well as took two of my classes. He is
also now pursuing SSU's single-subject teaching credential program in the Sciences, which
he will complete in May 2017. I continue to be enormously impressed by Josh's curiosity
with the world, his undiluted passion for education and social justice, and his extraordinary
generosity of personality.

Josh immediately stood out for me, in class and in our discussions in my office. His writing
and research skills are absolutely top-notch, and he is quick to make connections with
diverse material and difficult ideas-he truly seems to relish learning. He was always an
active and eager participant in class discussion, providing insightful and interesting critiques
of a variety of concepts relating to human communities' relationships with their
environments. I greatly appreciated his deep engagement with the topics at hand, as some
of his peers were much more hesitant or struggling-] osh always seems to understand that
there are no easy answers to today's environmental conundrums, and he relishes
opportunities to tackle those challenges.

Josh exhibits a high level of maturity and dedication that is rare in many students today-his
sense of organization, self-discipline, and ability to work independently make him more than
ready for graduate school. He is clearly comfortable with himself and others, and is flexible
and adaptable to a variety of classroom settings and expectations. He has a rare
combination of an inquisitive intelligence, a good-natured and no-nonsense personality, and
a firm commitment to improving the world around him.

In addition to earning strong As in most of his classes (including mine),Josh served as a

teaching assistant here in our department as an undergraduate, providing his fellow students
with support and assistance with complex material. Although the students in the class were
his undergraduate peers, he had both the confidence and patience to genuinely help with the
teaching, not just grading papers or keeping attendance. He genuinely seems to relish helping
people to broaden their own horizons and to understand environmental and social issues
more deeply-I feel he will make an excellent instructor.

THE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Bakersfield Channel Islands Chico Dominguez Hills East Bay Fresno Fullerton Humboldt Long Beach Los Angeles Maritime Academy
Monterey Boy Northridge Pomona Sacramento Son Bernardino Son Diego San Francisco Son Jose Son Luis Obispo Son Marcos Sonoma Stanislaus
I strongly urge you to offer Josh a teaching position; he is a stellar, promising scholar who
will only continue to excel, and your school will be lucky to have him. I give him my most
enthusiastic and unqualified recommendation.

Dr. Laura A. Watt

Professor, Environmental Studies and Planning
laura.watt@sonoma.edu
(707) 664-2722 office