The PSL scholars program has been an important and fundamental part of my freshman year at Ohio State. The second-year advocacy projects were really interesting to me, as I got to learn about a wide variety of topics. I enjoyed looking through these projects because it has given me inspiration for topics I can use for my project next year as well as given me ideas of how I can take steps to change my life to better society.
One of the projects I visited was about the impact of fast fashion on the environment. As a Fashion and Retail Studies minor, I find this topic interesting and relatable. In one of my classes I took this semester, we really focused on fast fashion and its impact on the environment, similarly to this project. I liked this project because it offered very simple ways that everyone can change their shopping habits to limit the impact of fast fashion on the environment. Some of the solutions that this project offered include shopping at secondhand stores and thrift stores instead of fast fashion companies such as Forever 21 and Zara. This is such a simple solution that will have little to no change on the consumer’s spending; however, it will have a huge impact on our environmental footprint if enough people change their habits. I thought this project was very insightful and did a great job offering easy solutions for consumers to change their shopping habits.
I also visited a project regarding financial literacy and underserved youth. I really enjoyed this project since I believe that being financially literate is very important. For as long as I can remember, my parents have been teaching me the proper ways to save money, budget my money, and have been teaching me smart ways to invest my money. I like this project because it talks about the importance of financial literacy, but also brings up the issue of how children in underserved communities are not given as much access or opportunity to learn these important skills. I thought that the club this project referenced is a very good way to be involved on campus and a great way to give back to the community. I liked that this project offered a way to help combat this issue that will let students like me be engaged on campus as well as off campus.
Furthermore, I visited a project about voter ignorance. This project was insightful for me because I have not always been the most politically aware person, but this project helped me understand different ways I can grow my knowledge of candidates. This project helped me understand the importance of being politically aware. It is mind blowing to see how many people, including myself at times, are not very knowledgeable about politics. This project did a great job drawing awareness to this issue, and also offering incredibly easy solutions such as simply visiting websites to learn about candidates’ stances as well as taking the ISideWith quiz.
Overall, the second-year advocacy projects o visited were very insightful, and I felt like they offered easy solutions that a vast majority of people can do in order to create change. These projects also gave me ideas for the project I will have to do next year because I have realized it doesn’t have to be something huge that I am trying to change, but instead should be something that I really care about and want to see changed.