Nicodemus Wilderness Project
Nicodemus Wilderness Project
About Us Projects Education Links Volunteers Membership  
Nicodemus Wilderness Project

 
 

NWP Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists - Xavier College Preparatory Campus, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

« ++ ·
http://www.wildernessproject.org/apprentice_ecologist/data/500/thumbs/7025702570257025702570257025702570257025100_2232.JPG
<<
http://www.wildernessproject.org/apprentice_ecologist/data/500/thumbs/7282728272827282728272827282728272827282Img-ID-SalmonRiver.jpg
<
http://www.wildernessproject.org/apprentice_ecologist/data/500/thumbs/7278727872787278727872787278727872787278180px-Logo_slogan.jpg
·
http://www.wildernessproject.org/apprentice_ecologist/data/500/thumbs/7266726672667266726672667266726672667266103_1154.JPG
>
http://www.wildernessproject.org/apprentice_ecologist/data/500/thumbs/7271727172717271727172717271727172717271trash_clean_up.jpg
>>
· ++ »

7278727872787278727872787278727872787278180px-Logo_slogan
Xavier College Preparatory Campus, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Simmons9342



Registered: December 2009
City/Town/Province: Phoenix
Posts: 1
View this Member's Photo Gallery
I have been educated about the environment by my mother from infancy. As a toddler, I walked with my mother as she went door to door with petitions to bring recycling to the community of Pine Del in Flagstaff, Arizona. Reasonably, when I entered high school, I was excited to join the school’s environmental club.


Unfortunately, when I entered high school, I found that thoughts on the impact on the environment rarely factored into decisions made by students and faculty on campus. At the end of freshman year, I was shocked at the reckless abandon with which students threw unused notebooks and school supplies into trash cans across my school campus of over 1,200 students. It was a blatant waste of energy, supplies and a complete waste of their parent’s money. In a financial crisis which has swept the nation, the teens found it acceptable to throw away school supplies, while many schools and needy students lacked these supplies nationally.


The next year, I approached the council of the environmental club. I suggested that at the end of the year we schedule a drive where students could donate school supplies that were new or gently used to be donated at the end of the year when they cleaned out their lockers. They agreed, and I single-handedly scheduled the school-wide event. I had recently moved and brought the boxes to school to be scattered by the locker areas. I campaigned on the morning announcements for the new annual drive. During the next few days I watched with glee as boxes filled with paper, pens, locker shelves and countless school supplies.


A teacher at my school assisted me in bringing the boxes to a local Goodwill, an organization that strives to produce jobs for unskilled, uneducated or handicapped citizens nationally through sales at their thrift-stores. Through this drive last year I was able to have an impact on the environment. Energy had been used to produce and transport the school supplies to my local area, and I prevented the energy from being wasted. The drive also prevented the supplies from being dumped in a landfill, where the plastics would have taken countless years to decompose, a continuing problem in today’s society. In addition, I utilized recycled containers to transport the supplies from school to the thrift store. I hope to make the drive even bigger this year, by finding a local school or organization to donate the supplies to and expanding recognition of the effort throughout the campus.


At the end of the year, I was elected vice president of the environmental club, a position I still maintain. The council of this club are responsible for recycling within the school. We try to focus on educating students about making choices that are not detrimental to the environment. In my next project, I hope to plan an exchange. In this project students may come to exchange used or new clothing. With this project, I hope to reduce CO2 emissions by traveling to stores, and to encourage fashion centered on used and local clothing.
· Date: December 28, 2009 · Views: 4536 · File size: 37.6kb · : 350 x 263 ·
Hours Volunteered: 3
Volunteers: 2
Authors Age & Age Range of Volunteers: 17 & 17 to 60
Print View