Reflection
Here is some information about what our Rocky Branch Creek team learned and hopes to do with regard to their majors and with Rocky Branch Creek in the future:
Gracey Lewis
During the EcoVillage class I learned that what I do matters. Although I am a tiny person, in a huge world passing on the knowledge of sustainability can really spread to other people! Almost like an invasive species ;)
I learned that sustainability has a lot more components to it than just recycling. I got to listen to many different professors and directors talk about how sustainability interacts with their completely different topic. Although I learned that it actually wasn’t so different after all.
Even though I enjoyed learning about these invasive species and sustainability components, I do not think I will be looking for a career in this field.
I have been around teams my whole life and working in this ecovillage team has really broadened my horizons. In my everyday activities I really only interact with people of my same major but now I’ve gotten to meet so many different people that have different interests than me and get to learn what they are passionate for.
I will not step off the face of the earth when talking about sustainability, it definitely interests me to take some things forward and possibility interacting my own career into similar regions.
Over the course of this class I have been reminded many things about myself. Due to our service project, I have familiarized myself with my love for working with plants. During the courses, I have learned that I care a good deal about sustainability and greatly support the aspects of sustainability.
I have learned a great deal about sustainability including what sustainability and the aspects that make up what sustainability is. I have learned that sustainability does not only pertain to the environment but spans much farther and is very much a social and economic concept as well. This was introduced to me by the guest speakers during the EcoVillage class.
Through the EcoVillage, and specifically the service project of invasive species removal, I have become much more connected to the organisms found throughout campus. Oftentimes I find myself thinking about the choices of trees and other plants that are found throughout campus. Due to my involvement in the EcoVillage I feel more so a part of a specific and close-knit community on campus.
This course has helped to reassure myself that my intended career path of environmental engineering is one that I would enjoy. I have greatly enjoyed my participation in the EcoVillage and would like to continue to invest part of my time into helping preserve the environment and live in a sustainable way. I believe these ideas that have been present throughout the course and I have enjoyed thoroughly are key components of what my major and future career of Environmental Engineering would entail.
From this course, I have learned that working as a team can be a very good thing. Throughout high school, I always dreaded group projects because I would always put in the work while the other members of the groups sat back and relaxed, or the work they put forth wasn’t satisfactory to what the assignment required. However, with this project, we all cooperated well together and put forth work into the project, which made the project easier for all of us overall.
Throughout this course, I have a good deal about sustainability and its three components of the environment, economy, and society and how the three coincide and react to one another. From the knowledge that I have obtained from this class, I have already thought of things such as companies and their externalities in a different way, taking sustainability and its intricacies into thought more so than I have done prior. I believe that this analyzing thought process that has been introduced to me through this course will continue and make me a more aware individual, with intentions of living in a sustainable manner.
Julia Harrison
I​n participating in this invasive species removal project I learned how invasive species not only affect the immediate environment that it is introduced to but also the economic and aesthetic costs that are incurred from their damage.
Before this project I did not realize that some of the plants that were around campus were actually invasives species. Other than kudzu, I thought that most of the plants that were heavily grouped together were just signs of an old ecosystem with mature vegetation, but in all actuality I was wrong.
In working as a team to identify invasive species in Rocky Branch Creek and how to present solutions to this problem, as well as getting word about this issue, helped me to understand the importance of communication. Without proper communication, our concerns and actions toward a healthier environment would just fall on deaf ears. Choose a proper source of media is important when trying to convey one’s thoughts.
After being involved with the removal of invasive species I have rekindled my passion for the outdoors and in conservation/restoration in general. As my major is currently Environmental Sciences, I look forward to working more with the removal of invasives and more specifically a career in water conservation/river restoration.
Timothy Chisholm