I completed my sustainability seminar requirement during the spring semester of my sophomore year with Ron Balthazor. It was an amazing seminar! We were introduced to so many different guest speakers and sustainability concepts. While we got a very broad and detailed scope of sustainability in this class, the thing that still sticks out to me most is how Ron always took an ample amount of time to make conversation with us. He’d sit down with either his coffee or tea (usually tea, since we were allowed to bring our own cups and mugs and try UGarden tea that was somehow always steeping in the front of the classroom), and he’d ask us how our week was going, if we were feeling mentally stable, what our favorite fruits or fungi were. I really began to value those class introductions, because it allowed me to get to know my peers as well as my professor. It taught me that a fundamental part of learning is feeling comfortable in your environment, because then you’ll feel more confident in your ability to understand and retain information as well as ask questions when you have them.
I wanted to incorporate this idea of making people feel comfortable in their environment through my capstone project. That’s why all the information on the Virtual Lake Herrick website is written in a way in which anyone can understand it. The illustrations and layout/organization of the information is also user friendly, meaning that children and adults alike can easily navigate through the information and feel as though they’re reading their favorite book. I just don’t think sharing information is worthwhile unless it can be shared effectively. Nobody wants to read a textbook!
Furthermore, Ron had us reflect a lot on our experiences both as human beings and as students. He’d ask us to think about processes/habits/relationships we’ve experienced in our lives and try to apply them or position them in a framework of sustainability. This is what made me realize that almost everything in life can be done in a more sustainable way. I began thinking about how even the products I buy, or the restaurants I eat at, or the clothes I wear can have significant impacts on the economy, society and the environment. These reflections also made me realize the importance of actively engaging in practices that support the concept of sustainability, especially through education. Just creating the conversation can be enough to get people caring and moving (like how Ron did with us). I incorporated this idea into my capstone project by basing the whole website on one mission- to educate others about the world around them and to make them care about the things they learn about. I believe if people, especially children, know cool or interesting facts about their favorite species, for example, they’ll be much more likely to talk about them with their friends, thus starting a conversation. This conversation is what leads people to be more conscious about how their actions might affect their environments.
Overall, thanks to Ron and the sustainability seminar, I’ve learned to value the power of conversation and consciousness. Taking the time to help people acquire knowledge and feel comfortable enough to do so is so important, especially in today’s climate where politics, climate change and social justice issues are so prominent. With that being said, I hope my capstone project inspires people to explore, learn and explore some more, and I also hope it makes people more consciously aware of their human impacts on Lake Herrick and how they can keep it beautiful and full of biodiverse life.
Here’s a sustainability event reflection I wrote on a Southeast Student Sustainability Conference I attended when I was an eco-rep my sophomore year. This was an assignment for the sustainability seminar.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Ya4WMJOuyE4MHSuVsxoKZNwLiIGinpM-CK06bFh6W4/edit?usp=sharing
This is another reflection writing assignment we had for the seminar. It’s a reflection about the seminar itself, as well as what I’d learned about sustainability throughout my time at UGA.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1beNosRrEtTdkWgbiIXnTS3IbMfryyjSWm4-YRzl1zPE/edit?usp=sharing