For my GOALS Project for my second semester, I am participating in the Everglades National Park Sea Kayaking trip. For the trip, I will travel to the Everglades over spring break with seven other students and the leaders of the trip in order to spend six days in the everglades. We will camp on the beaches of the everglades and kayak in the sea and the wetlands everyday. This trip will include in-depth instructions on how to safely sea kayak, leave no trace camping, and we will learn about the many estuaries and mangroves with the Everglades. From this trip, I hope to gain a more meaningful connection to nature. I have never done a trip this physically intensive before so it will be a whole new type of challenge for me. I hope to get more in shape before we leave for the trip so that I feel more prepared for the physical intensity. I know this trip will challenge me in a physical way because of the strength that I will need to get through it as well as the perseverance I will need to work through the heat, the bugs, and not being clean for days on end. I have also never explored a national park, so this will be a wonderful first experience. The Everglades were first made a national park not because of overall beauty, even though they are beautiful and valuable, but because of the large amount of biodiversity in the area. This is my favorite thing about the Everglades so far because I want to learn as much about biodiversity as I can so immersing myself in the ecosystem will be such an incredible learning opportunity. I also hope to be more confident going on a more extreme type of excursion so that I can continue to do more diverse types of outdoor adventure.

Being a mentor for my G.O.A.L.S. project has been quite eventful so far. The beginning part of the semester seems like the most important part of this project, since it was incredibly important to help the first years feel welcome and at home at the university and within ENR Scholars.

The welcoming part of the project has been winding down and I seem to be a lot less active as a mentor. However, I think this is natural since my Saplings need some time to adjust on their own and find their own place within the program and the school. So far, I’ve done a few things to offer myself as a resource to my saplings. I created a groupchat with both mentors and all of the saplings to help communication, plan group outings, etc. I also planned a dinner with the group where we all went to dinner at the Union together, and have invited them to some group activities where a few of them attended with me such as climbing and zumba. The interviews the saplings did with the mentors was also a great way for me to connect with them on a deeper level about what they want to get out of their experience here.

I think I am in a good spot in this project but I also think it would be easy to drift off from my goals and not stay as engaged since my saplings don’t seem to need me as much at this point in the semester. I hope to stay active as a mentor though. I plan on reaching out to help them with scheduling and planning more activities together. The transition into a new semester is also a great opportunity to help them adjust after winter break.

So far I don’t think any changes need to be made to this project other than keeping up contact with my saplings so that they recognize me as a resource for them. I also think I need to come up with a way to revamp my role as a mentor in the second semester.

For my second year project as an Environment and Natural Resources scholar, I’ve decided to be a mentor in order to give back to my scholars program. I chose this option because my experience as a first year in ENR was so transformational and I wanted to have the opportunity to help new first years get all of the wonderful things out of ENR that I did and more.

For this project, I will be mentoring a group of students through their first year of college. I hope to be a valuable resource for them by both being there for them on a personal level and on an academic and professional level. Through the position of mentor, I can answer questions that first years have about their assignments, networking, campus, where the best place to eat is, and how to just get through their first year successfully.

I hope this project benefits the first years in my saplings group the most because my intention in being a mentor is to create an atmosphere of acceptance and growth. I think this program in particular benefits the first years so that they feel less alone during their first time away from home and so they have someone that can answer their questions whenever they have them.

I also hope that I grow through this project by allowing myself to be a new type of leader. Instead of seeing leadership as someone standing before a crowd and rallying them, I hope to develop a more relaxed form of leadership so that I can find different ways to make sure everyone I care about currently and in the future has everything they need to be successful and to stimulate their own personal growth.

I hope I truly am the resource that I know my saplings will need on their new college adventure and I hope I learn to be a more efficient leader and friend for the new people in the program that has given me so much.

For my second visit in German Village, some friends and I went for a little pre-dinner desert at Pistachio Vera. This little macaron shop had some of the most delectable deserts I’ve ever seen. They had a plethora of scrumptious deserts from cheesecake, to soufflés way out of my price range. I may have been a bit excessive with my sweets spending but it was definitely worth it. We stayed in the shop for a little bit, exploring the art and cozy atmosphere since beautiful buildings right in the middle of German Village surround the shop. The macarons were also amazing and I can’t wait to go back.

One of my favorite visits on this expedition was the Scioto Audubon. The obstacle course was stunning and provided a great afternoon of physical activity. We got pretty competitive on some of the courses, a much needed stress outlet. After competing, we found some time to goof around on the balance beams that I was practically too short and uncoordinated to even stand on (see my dumb upside down pose above, it was the best I could do). We spent some time climbing over monkey bars, running through some tires and ropes, and hopping over walls. Essentially, after all of the fun in the big field with a Columbus skyline view, which is just a beautiful type of place for a city to have, we were all pretty tired and deserving of some food.

We cooled off by going to Schmidt’s. Since both Kandace and I don’t eat meat, we figured it was fairer to stop by Schmidt’s fudge shop rather than the sausage haus. This place made me feel right at home. Not because I’m always eating sweets (well, that’s besides the point), but because we have a similar little candy shop right in my hometown. I again couldn’t control my wallet when surrounded by privately made chocolate so I had to grab a pack of fudge. I even found my mom’s favorite candy so I grabbed her a small(ish) bag of white chocolate covered pretzels. This was definitely one of my favorite places.

Schiller Park was a totally different kind of adventure. We walked the perimeter and were amazed by the community invested in this park. We passed a birthday party, family afternoon outings, and some family picnics. It was uplifting to see so many meaningful relationships enriched by such a beautiful outdoor area preserved by the community. It was a wonderful place to relax at the end of the afternoon with some friends by the little lake in the center of the park. We late the Schiller statue and had to take advantage of the photo opportunity.

After watching the German Village Documentary, I had an even greater appreciation for the area. I had never really given much thought to the rich history of the area, how prohibition would have affected the market since breweries were so important, and how World War II would have affected the local people. I would easily recommend the Book Loft to any newcomer in Columbus because it’s unforgettable. German Village is easily one of my favorite places in Columbus now. It’s history and charm, and most importantly to me, the fact that it has been preserved after all this time, makes it unlike any other neighborhood.

My focus area for the Earth Month Challenge was waste and toxicity. I wanted to find new ways to be environmentally friendly in my daily life by attempting to be less wasteful and to contribute less to harmful substances. I found this challenge to be rather difficult but I achieved exactly what I had hoped by doing it. In order to accomplish my challenge, I had to do quite a bit of research in order to find reliable products without toxic chemicals or pesticides. This research led me to find new types of certifications that are on some of my new, favorite products such as the Rainforest Alliance Certification, which guarantees the product is organic, sustainably sourced, and even comes from humane farms that benefits the farmers and their communities. I also found new types of products that I like that are packaged in either recycled materials or just lack packaging in general.

I found this challenge to be particularly difficult. Minimizing waste on campus proved to be more difficult than I had expected because all of the food comes in plastic packaging unless I ate every meal at a dining hall. In order to avoid wasting plastic, I ate at dining halls as much as I could, which altered my routine quite a bit but it was doable. I also would forget my coffee thermos quite a bit so I would go without coffee instead of buying it for a while. However, I finally started to remember it everyday and I would just get drip coffee, black, everyday. Now I enjoy it black much more than I used to and it saves me a lot of money as well as reducing a huge amount of my waste. As a result, I will continue this part of my challenge in my daily life. I also found it difficult gauging how much I would eat in a meal in order to avoid wasting food at the end of a meal. However, I now know it’s much better to only get a little bit and get up for seconds than to overload my plate, another habit I will continue.

I plan to repeat this challenge over the summer since living on campus was such a huge factor in my challenge and made it much more difficult than I had expected. I expect being at home to make the challenge much different and possibly even easier. My challenge really opened my eyes about how so many of the resources on campus are not sustainable. I hope doing this challenge at home as well will help me find more products I like that are sustainable.

My third week of the Earth Month Challenge went extremely well. My challenges were cumulative so I got used to carrying my thermos around to get coffee with something reusable and I found better places to buy products with less packaging. My new challenge for this week was to only buy products that were organic or all natural to lessen my impact of toxins or pesticides on the environment. This was made much easier on me when I attended the Lucky’s cooking workshop. I was able to buy the products that I needed with a whole store full of organic and all natural products at my disposal.

In order to do even better regarding this specific challenge, I could have looked more into the food on campus and what was organic or all natural in order to make more informed decisions about what I purchased with my meal plan. During this week, I found it to be very rewarding when I did eat and purchase all natural foods simply because I knew they were better for both the environment and me. However, the convenience factor made a huge difference while I was eating on campus, since all natural food is more difficult to find in the cafes or the dining halls.

I think next week will go very well. My next challenge is to reduce the amount of products or food that I waste by only buying what I need and not overfilling my plate at dining halls. I think the challenges from the past few weeks were good training for learning to control my purchases in these types of ways.

My second Earth Month Challenge week was a big improvement on the first week. I decided to make my challenges cumulative so I continued to lessen my waste by buying fewer products with excess packaging. For my second week, I lessened my waste in a new way by ending my use of disposable coffee cups. Instead, I either went without coffee or used a thermos when I bought drip coffee. This presented a different kind of problem because I would get caffeine headaches when I didn’t get coffee. This helped me realize that I drink too much of it, a helpful realization. There was also one time I bought the disposable cup without realizing that it violated my challenge for the week so it helped me realize that I need to learn how to break some daily habits in order to be more environmentally friendly.

I also still had some problems with my challenge from the first week, since finding products with little packaging is particularly difficult. However, I ate at dining halls more often this week in order to avoid buying products with excessive packaging. I learned a lot about how my daily habits are harmful to the environment and in order to be more environmentally friendly, I need to break a lot for these habits, something that is good for both the environment and me. Next week, I plan to buy organic and all natural products in order to focus on lessening my toxicity. I think this coming week will be a much easier challenge if I were to buy things off campus, however it might be quite a difficult challenge while on campus.

I found the first Earth Month Challenge week to be pretty difficult. My first challenge of the month was to only purchase products with little to no packaging. I found myself trying to completely alter my daily routine so that I would be near a dining hall so I wouldn’t buy food that came in a disposable container. This was an easier feat to accomplish. However, there were many times that I would need a certain product that only comes in disposable plastic, which was very frustrating that there weren’t alternative products to buy with either reusable or recycled materials.

I think I could have done things differently if I had been more aware of how difficult changing what I buy would be. I researched a few products that are all natural and made of recycled materials, but almost none of them were made with reusable materials, such as glass bottles. I also learned that some of the products that I bought could be made from home, such as lotions. This includes a large amount of work but it would be worth not buying all of the plastic bottles. I also discovered that I need to reduce how much I eat at the cafes around campus and eat at the dining halls instead since the food comes in packaging in the cafes rather than being placed right onto my plate.

I anticipate the next week will go a little better since I now know what I need to change to reduce how much packaging I consume in my products and since I have a thermos to carry my coffee rather than the disposable cups. I did save quite a bit of money by prohibiting myself from buying excess products since most of them had too much packaging.