The Policy, Society, and Law Scholars group, along with the International Affairs scholars were invited to a talk on environmental and climate issues that we are faced with in today’s day and age.  The guests speakers talked about a change for the environment from a local point of view.

The First speaker, Kathy, talked about a program that she is leading here in Columbus that, if successful, will convert Columbus into a city that has one hundred percent renewable energy by 2050. This is a challenge that is being brought up to over one hundred cities in the United States and over two hundred want to be a part of this monumental change. According to past research, we have to lower carbon emissions by thirty five percent by 2040 to have a livable planet. The reason that the campaign is targeting cities is because of the fact that cities are responsible for seventy percent of carbon emissions.

The reason that Columbus would be such a success and is targeted for this project is because the City of Columbus is the fourteenth largest city in the United States. If Columbus were to successfully convert then is would set an example for both bigger and smaller cities around the United States and eventually in other countries. Columbus is also expecting to grow by over a million people by 2050. The city also has received two major grants that could support the cause.

The second speaker, Kate Bartter, is the executive director of sustainability at the Ohio State University. This is new at Ohio State seeing as this branch was just started a month ago and is staffed by a small group of sixteen hard working employees. Ohio State has adopted seven strategic goals focused on sustainability with more in the works. The reason that it is important that Ohio State be as sustainable as possible is because Ohio State has been considered one of the leading schools in the past and could lead other schools to make changes to help everyone in the long run. Whether that be making the campus self sustainable or inventing something in the labs to change the world.

Some of the goals that Kate would like to incorporate into the campus is to teach the campus about why this is important and to learn more how we as a school can improve, Outreach and engage with students, and innovate. Here at the University we have over two hundred researchers working on this all with different degrees to have as many angles covered as possible. Currently the campus has also converted the diesel buses to electric or eco friendly. This University is on the verge of changing and creating and becoming one of the advanced universities in the country and I am very proud to be a part of the community.

In the beginning of February, The Ohio State University organized a Global Water Forum with guest speakers to come and further educate students and professors. One of the guest speakers that came was a Mr.Marty Kress, who is the Executive Director of the Global Water Institute at Ohio State. Mr.Kress has dedicated his life to the studies of water and how to make it globally accessible. Before working at Ohio State, Mr.Kress worked on the United States Senate as a Senior energy analyst. He suggest many bills, and one that was not approved was a project to make every river, lake, and stream drinkable. Mr.Kress did not get the support he needed to make that happen, but imagine how much better the world would be, or even just the United States, if every body of water were to be potable.

Now that Mr.Kress is working for the university, he has dedicated most of his time and resources for a hands on project in Tanzania. Mr.Kress has seen how these villages struggle to necessities of life, such as water, and is working on a project year round to improve the lives of the community in these these villages. Mr.Kress and his team are not just trying to set up water pumps in these villages, but rather improve the water accessibility, hygiene, and agricultural yield. In these villages, the people lose their teeth at a very young age due to the water that they were drinking before mr.Kress and his team arrived. The water that these villages had access to was filled with fluoride, causing the teeth of all of those who drank it to slowly erode.

Mr.Kress and his team have a goal of setting up pumps in 125 of the villages in Tanzania. So far there are 40 villages that Ohio State is involved with. The reasoning behind wanting to get 125 villages a main water supply is because, if that number is reached, Mr.Kress has an agreement with the local government that they will fund everything necessary to make water accessible to the other villages if 125 of them are provided with a water source. In the accomplish this goal, the team has created a pump and installed it at their “pilot village” to test out how effective this pump would be. Pilot program did not just mean that it was a new pump that was being implemented, but they were also testing several other factors that were going on with the project. The pilot program was testing if the team, with member from all over the world, could collaborate well, if the program could be run remotely, seeing that mr.Kress is primarily employed by Ohio State, and to see the medium used to run the whole project. The pilot program was a huge success and gained much appraise from the government and the village.

The new pumps have improved the agriculture there by having now three different types of crops be farmed rather than just one, bringing better nutritional food. The diarrhea has been reduced by 30%. With all of this success in life improvement, one begins to wonder, once the pumps are a stable source of water for these villages, will it still be able to support all of the people as the life Expectancy goes up. Right now the birth mortality rate that is water related is ⅓ , if water is provided to these families how will it affect the household of 8 children?

        The scholars group at Ohio State University was able to offer me the opportunity to go to a local school and help add color to the lives of the students, in a very literal sense. A group of students from Ohio State went to paint a mural on the wall of the school to brighten up the hallways. When I first heard of this activity I did not think much of it, I thought that it would just be another activity that was going to be overlooked once it was done, like pictures at restaurants. Mainly because people don’t go to school to look at the art on the walls, but after entering the school I realize why this task was so important.

        Upon walking into the school my view on the importance of this task was swayed immensely. The local school that we were working on was established many years ago and was mainly bricks with minimal windows. Walking through the halls I felt like I was at some sort of detention center. White halls without end, thick brick and cement walls, followed by gates inside the school to close off sections. After just a few steps of walking through the halls I understood why this painting was going to be so impactful. These kids were inside all day with minimal sunlight, and when they were finally allowed of the classrooms, they would be greeted by cement walls and halls without end. If I were a student there, I would not be very motivated to attend a building as plain as this one.

          After talking to one of the leaders of CRIS (Community Refugee and Immigration Services) I learned that not only is this a problem for the students, but for the faculty as well. This school was a very unique design, meaning that rather than building upwards, the school was designed downwards. This school had two more floors that were underneath and after talking to one of the CRIS leaders, he told me that teacher would also come up from their classroom and go eight hours a day without seeing the light of day because they’re limited to their classroom and the teacher’s lounge.

         After hearing and seeing all of this, I was very pleased and proud to be able to help pain the walls of the once plain walls. I feel that the mural will really impact the lives of the students and faculty. It was also a very fun and interactive activity. While painting, all the students were talking and working together to get the job done as quick and efficiently as possible. I met new people that lived in my very building that I had never talked to or even seen. It was very fun and also interesting to see how everyone worked differently but yet as one, especially when there was a mistake made. For example, the paint would drip or go over into someone else’s section of the mural, but there would be laughs shared rather than harsh remarks. It was moments such as these that made me very happy to be involved in a community such as International Affairs. As the day went on, we all played music and danced while working to make the school a better place.

The movie I Am Not A Witch was a documentary that brought to a society in Zambia that sheds a light to a little girl that showed up near a village well without explanation. Since the education in system there is very poor, the adults did not know how to react or deal with a new unexplained face in town and came down to the explanation of this little eight year old girl being a witch. Once she was declared a witch, the little girl by name of Shula was confined to the the length of a ribbon so she wouldn’t fly away or she could cut it and turn into a goat. As a witch, she had a different role in their society, she was in charge of going into fields and harvesting crops, convicting criminals of crimes with her “powers” as a witch, and making it rain.

This documentary impacted me a lot because as advanced of a society the United States and other big countries are, there are still small countries or kingdoms such as Zambia that are still very behind in the advancements that we have made. In the film, it was a big deal to have a truck or even alcohol, here we see those as a need or a common accessory. In the movie they used alcohol as currency seeing that it was a hard item to come by, and yet there were people such as the Mr.Banda, the local government official, that would pour the alcohol in front of their home to please and ward off the evil spirits. The documentary clearly showed that the men in power in places like Zambia have far too much power. Mr.Zambia’s home was far more luxurious and lush than any of the other homes of the people in Zambia. This made me realize that the local governing official has far too much power and lacked the proper education to properly run a civilization. Mr.Banda relied on a little eight year old girl to judge who was a criminal and for rain to supply crops in the field. When Mr.Banda brought Shula onto the talk show to try and have her sell “Shula eggs” and when people called in they questioned why Shula wasn’t in school. Mr.Banda’s response was that the man that called in was “abusing” his power of freedom of speech by speaking his mind and going against the acts of the government. After this, Shula was put in a school to learn, and she was enjoying it. Shula seemed to really take a liking to school, but after a while they needed her to make it rain again. They didn’t ask her to come, instead they just pulled her ribbon in the middle of her class without a care for her feelings towards the class. After this Shula was very depressed and sad because she realized that she will never really be free in this community as long as she is a witch, so she takes what she thinks is the only way out and ends her life.

I also thought that it was incredibly sad that at the end of the film, Shula had to die to be able to bring light to the fact that she indeed was just a normal girl. It took the death of a little girl to be able to grant freedom to all of the said “witches” that were confined to the length of a ribbon.

I attended the Study abroad expo and it was an academic event for the Scholars and it was more informative than I had expected. I went on September fourth and started by going to the International Affairs booth. This booth helped me learn more about the program and all that it has to offer. I was told about the trip to Brazil that is planned over spring break and about all the work that there is to be done there. The Scholars offers a trip to a small town in Brazil and been able to go to the local government offices and get to know the area.

Then I stopped by the engineering booth, being that I am on track to be a mechanical engineer. I learned about two study abroad trips that really caught my eye, one to Greece and the other to Guatemala. The one to Guatemala really interested me because we would get to work with the locals and improve buildings and help the community using the skills that we had learned here at Ohio State University. I was also really interested in this study abroad because I speak Spanish and am always looking to expand my knowledge on different Latino cultures and traditions.

The study abroad trip to Greece interested me because there is a lot of history and knowledge to be gained in Greece. We would go and study some of the structures that are still standing centuries after they were built. I also learned that freshman and sophomore year is the ideal time to study abroad because later on there will be internships and more rigorous courses that consume more time.

The downside of being abroad is that you are in an unknown area and are very far from home so some of the students tend to get homesick. I don’t think that this would be an issue for me because of the fact that I traveled a lot as a kid and never had one home per say. Another reason is that I have traveled  before for mission trips and been gone for weeks at a time so I am used to being alone in a new and unknown area along with working in the area. Even though I like to think that I am good at not getting home sick, I would not feel comfortable staying somewhere more than a month at a time. I also am a very outgoing person and love meeting new people so I would like to think that I would not have an issue making new friends and creating new bonds with the locals.

This experience would help my career because it would show employers that I am not afraid to get out of my comfort zone and go into new horizons using my major. My ideal study abroad would be an engineering study abroad in Spain. This would enable me to use my engineering knowledge and Spanish speaking background to work on projects and learn about the culture and life in Spain. After graduation, if I could work for any organization I think that I would pick Microsoft, mainly because they have all kinds of different applications for mechanical engineers. They also have endless locations where I might be stationed, my ideal one would be in Singapore because of how technologically advanced it is today and keeps becoming. My dad also worked for Microsoft when I was growing up and I got to go to the offices and I was blown away by the work atmosphere there.