Christine Ernst

Student

“The teachers at SMC make it a place where it’s very easy to do a very difficult thing.”

Christine’s internship through the Dale Ride program at SMC will soon take her to New York City where she’ll be working with the World Order Models Project. “It’s an organization of scholars and political figures who focus on peace, economics, and ecology,” says Christine Ernst. She came to SMC after an eight-year working stint. “I was in the film business doing production managing for commercials. I traveled and lived abroad and those experiences got me intensely interested in history,” she says. “So I found my way to SMC and I feel so lucky now, I can’t even believe it.”

Christine plans to continue to graduate school, “and then I think I’ll end up working in the arena of international peace,” she says. “We need to adjust our thinking about the kind of world we’re creating for people. And the way to do it is through education. People are afraid and intolerant of each other,” she continues. “It can be a much better world if we deal with the tough problems like pollution and overpopulation.” Christine endorses a global Constitution and hopes that universally fair laws will alleviate much human suffering. “Every day I think of how lucky I am to be born into my situation,” she says. “And this awareness gives me the obligation to somehow help people who are not so fortunate.”

Christine keeps up a full schedule at Jim Henson Productions where she continues to work in film. “They’re very supportive of my efforts to go back to school,” she says. “For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m in the right place at the right time.” And she is unquestionably excited about her upcoming trip to New York and the prospect of working for global understanding. “World peace,” she says, “ought to be a lot easier product to sell than breakfast cereal.”

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