Howdy!
My name is Sydney Erickson and I am a first-year finance major here at GSU. I am excited to have the opportunity to be enrolled in Honors 3280: Service-Learning Seminar in Urban Ecology and Environmental Conservation this semester with Dr. Finck. My main reason for choosing this course was that I found the idea of being able to give back to my community while earning college credit an incredibly good use of my time. I must admit that I did not expect to have that the opportunity to learn and read as much as we had in the first part of this semester, but after having done so, I am incredibly grateful that we did. I feel that I was able to refine some of my own personal opinions through reading the opinions of McKibben and Purdy as well as gain whole new perspectives on major problems I was unaware so many were impacted by (i.e. superfunds as discussed by Kathryn Savage). A multitude of the readings we discussed in class emphasized how the existence of nature and humans play off of each other, and although I had a baseline understanding of this concept, I had never taken the proper time to discuss what it truly meant and how that therefore impacts my day-to-day life.
For this semester, I will be working with the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, which is something I am quite excited about! The interaction I have had with Jordan Yu (Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Watershed Protection Specialist) has been somewhat limited due to him taking part in Water Professionals event but what I have gathered from our discussions is that it seems that my work will fall in line with litter cleanup and analysis, water sampling, pollution tracking, speaking events, workshops, or social media. I have spent multiple years volunteering for Rivers Alive (a river clean up organization) and because of this I know that I have a great deal of interest when it comes to rivers and waterways in Georgia, which is why this organization stood out to me in the first place. Another reason I am so excited to work with this organization is because of their activism. When comparing McKibben and Purdy, I felt my viewpoints aligned more so with Purdy’s view on how impactful laws are when it comes to preservation, so it I was beyond thrilled when I saw on Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s website that they take special interest in advocating for bills that would protect our waters. Alongside this, they also emphasize the importance educating and investing in those same waters, which just adds to how wonderful this organization seems and makes me fueled with excitement to be able to contribute with my time and final project. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work for them and I look forward to what is to come this semester!
Good luck everyone!