Service-Learning Blog

Introduction: Nya Nicholson

by nnicholson3

 

Hi! My name is Nya, and I am a third-year interdisciplinary studies major, with a concentration in Biomedical Science and Enterprise. I’m originally from Pittsburgh, PA, but I have been living in Atlanta since my first year of college. My major choice reflects my desire to understand the different facets of the healthcare industry through coursework in science, law, ethics, and business. Throughout my undergraduate journey, my goal has been to explore various disciplines that I find interesting, not only to become well-rounded but also to guide my path for future graduate school studies and a career.  

I chose to take this course because it implements several things that interest me. I’ve always enjoyed volunteering growing up, and I’ve always been fascinated by nature and its complexities. This course gives me a chance to volunteer and learn about local environmental issues here in Atlanta. 

My community partner for this spring is the South River Watershed Alliance (SWRA). They’re dedicated to restoring the ecological balance of the South River, helping both the environment and the community. The river’s main challenges include ecological threats such as pollution, poor water quality, and inadequate regulatory enforcement. I was drawn to this organization because of the impactful work they’re doing to better the communities affected by the South River. Particularly, what stood out to me is how vocal they are about environmental racism. Growing up in Pittsburgh, also known as “Steel city” because of its industrial history, I’ve experienced firsthand the impact of environmental damage disproportionately affecting Black and low-income communities.  

SRWA highlights the importance of advocacy and awareness as part of the solution to the river’s challenges. I’m looking forward to learning more about environmental justice and finding ways to contribute and amplify the important initiatives of the South River Watershed Alliance through my course project and blog posts. 

Spring 2024 Semester

by Dr. Shannon Finck

Going strong for a second semester in Spring 2024, the Honors Service-Learning Seminar in Urban Ecology and Environmental Conservation enrolled twelve curious, conscientious students, representing a wide range of majors and disciplines throughout the university. For the first six weeks of the semester, these students gathered in the classroom with Dr. Shannon Finck twice a week to read about and discuss various philosophies of conservation and climate mitigation. During the next eight weeks, each student would be matched with one of seven participating community partners–all environmentally-focused organizations operating in the metro Atlanta area–to undertake independently designed service-learning projects, developed in conjunction with these organizations. 

Our community outreach grew a little bit this year, welcoming four new organizations to our growing list of ongoing and rotating partnerships, and we’re excited about what this semester and the future of this initiative, more broadly, might hold.

As in our previous semester, this blog reflects students’ experiences and observations during their service-learning journeys and documents the development of their projects. Here, you can read about who they are, what they’re working on, and what they’re learning. Since, this is the initiative’s second semester running now, you can also check in periodically to see how the course is taking shape over time.

Spring 2024 Partnerships

by Dr. Shannon Finck

This year’s Service-Learning Seminar in Urban Ecology & Environmental Conservation (HON 3280) is proud to partner with the following local organizations to offer volunteer and learning opportunities to Honors College Students at Georgia State University: 

Atlanta Coyote Project

“The Atlanta Coyote Project consists of scientists devoted to learning moreabout coyotes living within the metro Atlanta area. Whether you arecaptivated, concerned, or just plain curious when it comes to coyotes, westrive to be a relevant and credible source of information and to providestrategies for peaceful human-coyote coexistence. Through education,coordination, and research, the Atlanta Coyote Project seeks to be acentralized location where coyote sightings, activity, and incidents acrossmetro Atlanta and urban Georgia are reported, maintained, and mapped.”

Blue Heron Nature Preserve

“Nestled in Atlanta’s North Buckhead neighborhood, Blue Heron Nature Preserve is home to the 3-mile Blueway Trail which allows visitors to experience 30 acres of woodlands, wetlands, riparian areas and meadows – all without leaving the city. The Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Atlanta aims to preserve and enhance the 30 acres of natural habitat entrusted to us, especially the Blueway Trail, which is critical to our mission of creating a personal experience with nature.”

Chattahoochee Riverkeeper

“Established in 1994, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper employs a variety ofstrategies to protect and preserve the Chattahoochee River, its lakes andwatershed. They include: water monitoring, education, research, advocacy,communication, collaboration, and legal action. Our mission is to educate,advocate and secure the protection and stewardship of the ChattahoocheeRiver, including its lakes, tributaries and watershed, in order to restore andconserve their ecological health for the people and wildlife that depend onthe river system and in recognition of the important ecosystem functionsprovided throughout the region and planet.”

Dunwoody Nature Center

“We aim to inspire the love of nature and cultivate environmental understanding and stewardship through a variety of programs and activities that engage the public and provide our community with a sense of place within the natural world. As a private, non-profit organization operating primarily out of Dunwoody Park, the Nature Center enjoys a strong and supportive public/private partnership with the City of Dunwoody. In addition to running mission based programs throughout the year, we are committed to enhancing and preserving Dunwoody Park for the enjoyment of the community. We are a living lab that is environmentally sustainable, inclusive and accessible to all.”

Georgia Native Plant Society

“The Georgia Native Plant Society (GNPS) is a nonprofit organizationdedicated to promoting the stewardship and conservation of Georgia’snative plants and their habitats. The Intown Atlanta Chapter supports therestoration of such habitat sites as Mary Scott Nature Preserve, HerbertTaylor and Daniel Johnson Park and Nature Preserve, Zonolite Park, andW.D. Thompson Park.”

South River Watershed Alliance

“As the only organization currently protecting the South River, SRWA iscommitted to ecological restoration of the South River for the benefit ofnature and people. Cleaner water requires increased awareness, collectiveadvocacy, stronger protection, and management of our river as a valuablenatural resource. We aspire to elevate water as a resource, boost awarenessand advocacy, make recreation accessible, and restore the South River.”

Wild Nest Bird Rehab

“Wild Nest Bird Rehab, Inc. is a nonprofit charity dedicated to rehabilitating wild songbirds for release back to the wild. We accept orphaned songbirds and injured songbirds and serve Atlanta and surrounding areas. Along with our rehabilitation services, our mission includes educating the public about how to attract and support native songbird species through native landscaping, the dangers to our songbird populations, and the important role songbirds play in our environment.”

Jaz, Sabrina, & Mahnoor; Noor & Yash: Atlanta Creek League

by Dr. Shannon Finck

These two groups of students organized and promoted creek cleanups and worked to increase creek access in their areas as part of Atlanta Creek League. Below are some photos of them planning their events as well as an example of some of the promotional materials they created. 

 

And if you’re in the Georgia State area, you can support the ongoing work of Atlanta Creek League by signing up to Play for Clear Creek (Jaz’s Team)!

Ava & Milo: Blue Heron Nature Preserve

by Dr. Shannon Finck

For their community partner, Blue Heron Nature Preserve, Ava and Milo researched and created educational signage for a native plant and pollinator garden. Their 8-foot sign included facts about plants, insects, and birds that may be found in the garden as well as original art rendering the flora and fauna of the preserve. This spring, they mounted it in the garden at a height that would make it accessible to all visitors, including children.

My Neighborhood’s Creek

by yalluri1

Volunteering with Atlanta Creek League has been amazing and beyond my expectations this semester. Through this opportunity, I’ve explored my neighborhood and parts of it that I didn’t even know existed. About two weeks ago, Hannah(One of the founders of Atlanta Creek League) and I explored the neighborhood I live in to determine the water flow using the creek’s start and end point. During this process, we discovered that my neighborhood’s creek doesn’t have a name, so we plan to name it soon, and for the time being, we are calling it ‘Garden Hills Creek.’

So, we first started locating the water stream in different parks in the neighborhood, and we successfully figured out that the Creek water starts at ‘Frankie Allen Park’ and ends at ‘Peachtree Hills Park.’ We’ve found that the water comes through a pipe at ‘Frankie Allen Park,’ from there, it’s just a stream again flowing through a couple of pipes.

So the creek flows as such: ‘Frankie Allen Park’ —– ‘Sunny Brook Park’ —– ‘Alexander Park’ —– ‘Peachtree Hills Park’ —– ‘Peachtree Creek.’ There is another creek that flows from ‘Sidney Marcus Trail’ and then connects to the one from ‘Alexander Park’ and combines flow to ‘Peachtree Hills Park.’ The creek is rich with wildlife, and based on my observation, the water seemed clean and fresh. Also, Hannah taught me the difference between English Ivy and Poison Ivy. It was an experience I would never forget, and I still keep visiting these parks every weekend since I first visited them for sights of new observations and encounters.

So as this creek has no name to it for now, Hannah and I are thinking of giving it a name, and soon we’ll be planning to work on it. I never thought that I would be connected to an organization as I currently do with Atlanta Creek League. I personally love exploring the nature-rich parts around me, but I never thought that I’d have some very close to me, and being a part of this organization helped me with that. For my final project, my fellow volunteering partner Noor and I decided to share our experiences and discuss some basic information about creeks in general. We will combine our experiences and our creek’s information for better understanding.

Garner Creek Clean Up

by sthomas178

  

 

Atlanta Creek League has allowed me to set up a clean-up of my local creek. It is always so exciting to be able to do hyper-grassroots events. This creek has been a key part of my childhood, I can remember the cold water on the hot summer days. Recently, my creek has undergone some extreme construction. While this construction is to help the ecosystems within the creek, it still caused a big strain on it (funny how that works?). Old construction materials and plastic litter the creek, and I am so excited to help this nostalgic area.

One thing that has really surprised me about all of this is the sheer amount of people that are dedicated to helping the wildlife in Gwinnett County. Gwinnett County has three officials that focus on the creeks and rivers of the region, and their overall health. I have contacted all of them but unfortunately have not heard back. It would be very interesting to meet with them. Contacting people to help with this event has been exhausting, and more challenging than expected. A lot of these people have extremely busy schedules, and I have struggled with finding a certain time to meet with them to discuss my event. 

Even though it has been chaotic trying to contact a lot of different organizations to help out, I have been very much supported by a lot of different organizations. Of course, Atlanta Creek League has helped me immensely with certain people to contact. Hannah, the founder of ACL, is an amazing person and an extremely altruistic person. I have struggled a lot with getting in contact, and she has helped me immensely. She also has been kind enough to add Garner Ceek to the Atlanta Creek League website. Garner Creek Club, is the high school club that helps out the creek once and a while. It is interesting to work with them because when I was in high school, I participated in the exact same club. It was so nostalgic and pleasing to me that people are continuing to help this creek out. 

Overall, I am extremely excited to host my event! It is scheduled to be the day after Earth Day, and I am excited to hand out my project to volunteers. After this event, I would really like to continue to work with Atlanta Creek League. They are such an amazing organization and I could not use my time better. For all of you that are reading this, get in contact with them! They are enthusiastic and amazing if you would like to give back to a community. Attached below are some photos of the construction trash, and the creek itself. I hope you get inspired to check out your own creek!

Elena & Viraj: Concrete Jungle

by Dr. Shannon Finck

In addition to volunteering at the Freedom Farmers Market and Doghead Farm, Elena and Viraj teamed up to design TWO projects for their community partner, Concrete Jungle: one public-facing social media campaign, and one internally-focused data model of the organization’s volunteer pathways.

You can check out Elena’s campaign, Fruit Fact Fridays, as it appears week to week on Concrete Jungle’s Instagram (no spoilers!).

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Concrete Jungle (@concretejungleatl)

Learn all about Viraj’s project here, on the website he built to house it!

Beginning my Creek Journey

by nalbaghdadi1

Recently, I began my work with the Atlanta Creek League by collaborating with Hannah Palmer, one of the minds behind the initiative, to begin building a local creek team. The Atlanta Creek League aims to engage communities in the Atlanta area with their local creeks in a fun and competitive way. By building creek teams and river divisions, communities across Georgia can find interactive and rewarding ways to be more aware of the natural world around them as well as improve the conditions of these critical water bodies. 

Many people live around creeks or have one just in their backyard, but may not know much about it. In fact, some creeks are not even named as a result of the lack of awareness about the local bodies of water around us. Prior to beginning my work with the Atlanta Creek League, I knew about the parks around me and the bodies of water (particularly lakes and rivers) that surrounded my house but I didn’t know much about the organizations that maintain them, the names of the creeks and rivers in my general watershed, nor the counties boundaries they cross over. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know much about creeks at all. Talking with Hannah and looking into the incredible work she and others involved with the Atlanta Creek League have done for our local watersheds made me all the more excited to learn about my own creek and how I can play a role in preserving it. Learning the importance of preserving watersheds beyond the borders of counties, cities, and legal jurisdictions dictated by maps really opened my eyes to how those boundaries can affect the livelihood of the creeks around us. I learned what my watershed is, how far it extends, the organizations that may be involved with its preservation, and how to start building a team for the creek. Here is a picture of the Little Mulberry Watershed that’s in my area, in case you haven’t seen it or heard about it before!


This watershed, like many others, connects so many different people from different cities, counties, and neighborhoods. I’m excited to start engaging the community with my local creek and have people meet each other and connect that would have otherwise never considered themselves a community with a shared regional feature or identity. I’m eager to begin with the projects I have planned out for my creek to raise awareness about and enact the preservation of Little Mulberry creeks and rivers. Beyond that, I’m happy that this initiative will also give communities around me an opportunity to connect with each other and collaborate on the bodies of water that sustain us and our environment. 

I can’t wait to update you guys again, hopefully with more faces in the pictures and another step towards creating a team for my creek!