The speakers really opened up my eyes to how much non-profits actually rely on volunteers and the community that they are based in. I think when I was researching non-profit organizations, I viewed them a lot as just that, organizations, and I had disassociated the work they do from the people that work everyday to make the impact that the organization wants to achieve. I think that a lot that I need to consider while exploring the issue of climate change further is the impact that individual people have on the problem, whether they are working to fix it or working against progress. I need to stop viewing climate change as a problem for the government, and organizations to solve, and start seeing it for what it truly is, a problem for the people. We need to start to change the way we live our everyday lives to ever see a change begin to occur, we need to educate the people around us about the issue, and we need to help with volunteering for organizations that are actually making a change.
My biggest takeaway from this class was that the problems that the non-profits are working to fix are problems that impact all of us in one way or another, even if we don’t realize it. I never thought about refugees in Columbus until after this class session, and now I realize that they impact the economic balance in the city of Columbus. I also realize that there are a lot of issues that I want to help make an impact in and I think that the most difficult part is going to be deciding where to designate my time.
After the 2 lens assignments and the 4 class discussions, I think that I want to impact my issue by decreasing my daily energy usage, recycling more often, and only walking everywhere I need to go if it is in walking distance. I think doing these few things will greatly reduce my personal impact on climate change. And I will educate my roommates about the importance of trying to incorporate these things into their everyday lives as well.