ENR Scholars Final Review

Dear ENR Scholars,

I am saddened to say that this is my final post as an active ENR Scholar since this is the end of my second year in the program. I have gained so much during my time as an ENR Scholar that I will take with me throughout the rest of my journey as a student at The Ohio State University and as a citizen of the Earth. The biggest highlight of my two years as a scholar would probably be the camping trips we took to Hocking Hills State Park. My first trip was the first time I had ever camped out in a tent the whole night and I would say it was my first official camping experience. I made so many memories on that trip and got to know so many cool people. On that trip I found my passion for birding on the birding hikes with Matt and Kandace which was an absolute blast! I also learned about slacklining and how bad I am at it! I went to Rock House for the first time and I was blown away. To top it all off, I went star gazing with my friends and I saw for the first time in my life, the Milky Way galaxy on a clear night. There were even shooting stars that night! My second year trip was different but just as memorable. I got to know lots of first years who are super cool and are very smart and passionate. On the birding hike with Matt and Kandace this year I got to see a pileated woodpecker up close which was an amazing experience. I also slept in my new hammock both nights which was a new first for me as well. I challenged myself to go on the twelve mile Ash Cave hike which was well worth the trip and we also saw Ceder Falls and Old Man’s cave, so we technically did three hikes in one. On the last day I went with a few second years to Quail’s Hollow and I saw saw a wild Barred Owl for the first time! The camping trips were definitely the highlights of my ENR Scholars experience.

I gained many things from my experiences in ENR. I found my passion and drive for living a more sustainable life during my time in ENR. I discovered my love for outdoor recreation and the many new experiences outdoors I have had thanks to ENR. I found my passion for birding from Matt and Kandace during the camping trips each year which inspired my love for nature photography. I discovered my passion for environmental education when Olivia Minnie and I worked on our Tree Identification event. I also gained friendships that I might not have made if I wasn’t in ENR Scholars. There are so many things that I learned and discovered in ENR Scholars that I couldn’t possibly name them all, but these are a few of them.

Being an ENR Scholar has taught me a lot about sustainability and the environmental impact we make during our everyday lives. The knowledge I gained inspired me to make a few changes in my life and the impact I make. When I started at The Ohio State University I recycled as much as I possibly could and as often as appropriate. I also recently bought metal straws so that I would reduce my plastic straw waste. I will continue these changes in my life and I will also continue to find new ways I can reduce my negative environmental impact. Since I am moving off campus next year I really want to start composting and growing what food I can indoors, even if it is just herbs.

The advice I would give to incoming ENR Scholars is to go to as many events as you can and learn as much as you can. The events ENR Scholars has put on for us have been very informative and very fun to participate in. I learned so many different things and experienced so many new things that I wouldn’t give up for the world. I would also say to the new members is to not be afraid to journey out of your comfort zone. When I tried something new in scholars or participated in something I wasn’t sure I was going to like I ended up having an amazing time and I was so glad that I took a leap of faith. Learn as much as you can and you will be so glad you did.

Thank you for such an amazing experience at The Ohio State University. I will never forget the memories I’ve made and the knowledge I gained as an ENR Scholar.

 

Sincerely,

Hailey MacArthur-Senediak

This picture was taken at Cedar Falls on our way to Ash Cave on the ENR Scholars camping trip in 2017.

This us a picture of me and of some of the friends I made my first year in ENR Scholars in 2016. We were by the lake where we were star gazing and Ris Twigg wanted us to pose for a photo.

Year in Review 2016-2017

This photo was taken at the ENR camping trip last year. The choice I made to join ENR has really impacted my life in this short year. This picture is important to me because it was of me with some new friends I made in ENR. I made new friends who I most likely would not have met if I didn’t participate in ENR .Those friends also have taught me a lot about the world they come from that I was not aware of and they also helped me learn about myself. ENR has also helped me get in touch with nature in ways that I hadn’t before. It also has inspired me to live more sustainably by recycling more and composting.

This picture of me playing my baritone ukulele in my common room. The opportunity collage gave me to begin learning and doing things that I want to do is what makes this photo special. I love music and I want to learn as many musical instruments as I can. This photo is important to me because it represents my choice to go after that goal and achieve it. It also represents my decision to live more for myself and do what I need to make my life full.

This photo was taken at the 2017 North Central District Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi Convention. I chose at the beginning of the year to rush Tau Beta Sigma and I have not regretted my decision once. TBS has given the opportunity to meet so many amazing and talented people. I’ve made so many friends in both Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi who have made my first year at OSU memorable. TBS also is teaching me to be a better leader and to contribute to the community to make a positive impact wherever I can through service.

This photo was taken at the 2017 Spring Game where I got to perform a pregame and half time show with the Athletic Band. This picture represents the decision I made to continue making music and entertaining through it. Athletic Band has given me so many opportunities to participate in unique experiences like performing Script Ohio on Ice and the Elvis show at Spring Game. I’ve met some wonderful people and formed friendships with some members of Athletic Band. I’m very glad I made the decision to join also because I’m continuing to live my passion of music making. Band has also taught me in the past as well as the present to do what I can to contribute to the group and work with others to put out something amazing in the world.

This picture was taken at a small learning event in Morrill tower featuring a doctor of etymology who spoke about beekeeping and the importance of pollinators. This event was not part of my Earth Action month plan, but I chose to attend because the action plan introduced me to the issue of pollinator endangerment and I’ve become very passionate about this issue. This picture represents my new found interest in bees and my desire to learn more about what I can do to help make a positive impact on bee endangerment.

Earth Month Action Plan

For Earth Action I plan to do four different actions each week. For the first week I will attend a panel discussion about the importance of pollinators. The members of the panel will include beekeepers, professors, and more. What may be difficult with this action is fully understanding the scientific knowledge about bees and other pollinators. I intend to use the panel as a resource and ask questions about anything they discuss that I may not really understand. The second week I plan to plant a bee garden at my home back in Marysville. This bee garden will include flowers that attract bees and help them collect pollen to make their honey. What may be difficult with this action is making time to go back home and plant the garden. I will utilize my parents or other family members to help drive me home and back to campus. On the third week I will participate in the March for Science on Earth Day and make a sign that draws attention to the issue of declining bee populations. What may be difficult here is making the sign but I intend to use Target as a resources and my friends’ help to create a good sign. The fourth and final week I plan to visit my family friend, Katrina, and her bee farm. This will give me the opportunity to see bees in action and more fully understand their importance. The difficulty here would be travelling to her bee farm, but as always I can use my parents to bring me to her farm.

Mid-Action Plan Check In

The first two weeks of Earth Action Month went well. I had to change my first action to “Advertising for the We Can Bee Better” but other than that my first weeks were very good. The first action was simple and I didn’t learn much from it except that I didn’t know that we had professors who specifically taught about bees and other pollinators. I learned this from the event post that I shared to The Ohio State University Environment and Natural Resources Scholars Facebook page. What was cool was one of my Facebook friends, who was not in ENR, saw my post and shared it to her friend who works with bees at her husband’s bee farm. The second action that I did for Earth Action month was attending the “We Can Bee Better” panel discussion. I really learned a lot from attending this event. The panel that consisted of a staff member from Chadwick Arboretum, a Professor of Etymology, a professional Beekeeper, and an owner of the Brothers Drake Meadery. I learned from these wonderful panelists interesting information about bees that I didn’t know before. Some of the things I learned were for example: the honey bee is from Europe, honey can be made into wine (mead), we consume twice the amount of honey we produce in America, starchy vegetables like corn and potatoes don’t need pollinators, there are about 400 bee species in Ohio, beekeepers lose about 45% of their colonies each year, the number of registered beehives dropped from 45,000 down to 15,000 in about twenty years, etc.  I also learned that I really enjoy learning about bees! During the entire panel discussion I was wanting to learn more about pollinators and I was very engaged in their presentations and discussions. I think I want to take the professor’s class on beekeeping (Etymology 2200 I believe it was) as well. I think for future actions I will prepare more in advance to make sure that I’m ready to do the action. My last two actions will be more involved and will need some coordination to make them work. Next week I will go back home for a day and plant a bee garden with the help of my parents. The last action I will take will be attending the March for Science on Earth Day. I have already prepared a bee-related sign that I will carry with me during the march! I’m very excited to continue my actions and further advocate for bee awareness!

Nonprofits Reflection

When I heard the presenters speak about their nonprofit organizations during the class what I really noticed was the importance of volunteers and the work they put in. It really made me think about how nonprofits that try to help the bee populations really rely on volunteers and their efforts to help bees as well.

When I consider my topic through this lens I think I really need to focus on the number of people who are helping bees by volunteering their time and if there is a huge need for more people. This would help my understanding of my issue because then I can see if what I can do to help would not only include volunteering my own time but also trying to reach out to others to volunteer as well.

Like I’ve stressed this far the reliance on volunteer work and the need for them is my biggest take away from the class session. Nonprofits really make their differences in their issue because of other people in the community who care as well, they can’t do it alone.

Personally, I think something I could do to really help bees is, like I said before, to volunteer my own time to help nonprofits benefit bees and also maybe communicate to others out in the community and try to ask them to do the same. This way I not only can help directly by volunteering but also indirectly by recruiting more people to help. Not only can I get more people to help but by communicating to the public I also get the word out about the nonprofit and about the issues surrounding bees.

Social Enterprise Reflection

What I heard from the guest speaker in class about social entrepreneurship didn’t really change my view of my issue through the lens. I did see how social entrepreneurship is heavy on helping people rather than making a profit. I thought that making a profit would be more important to the business but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Concerning my issue, social enterprises that focus on honeybees really are there to help bees repopulate and live successfully in the wild and in the artificial bee hives instead of trying to make a profit off bees. Something additional I should look at is if social enterprises are really taking action to help address the source of the issue instead of passively aiding.

My biggest takeaway from the class was I learned that nonprofit is just a tax distinction and social enterprise is a philosophy which I didn’t know before.  I also learned that some businesses who claim that they are helping an issue don’t do a very good job at helping a cause, for example donating a mattress to a shelter for every one sold. It is better for an enterprise to address the root of the problem and tackle it at the source.

I personally would like to find volunteer opportunities to help with social enterprises that are trying to aid bees. In the TED talk I found I saw a lot of volunteers helping the businesses build gardens and hives for the bees and I would be very interested in doing work like that.

Nonprofits Lens

One particular non-profit I looked at called the Honeybee Conservancy does a few things to try to impact the decline of honeybee populations. One way they do this is they provide education to the public about bees and their importance. They are available to visit classrooms and have field trips to one of their many locations. During these educational opportunities, the Honeybee Conservancy have hives for adults and children to observe bees at work in a safe learning environment. They also fund honeybee research done by The Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility  in attempt to find better ways to conserve them. Lastly, they have a Sponsor-a-Hive program where they will donate hives, beekeeper gear, and bees to communities that have gardens that would benefit with a sustained bee population.

There is one main important thing that comes to mind when I think about nonprofits and honeybees. It is important to consider the need of support from the general public. Nonprofits need donations to provide for research and programs to help honeybees, so they can’t do it alone. Nonprofits also couldn’t thrive without volunteers helping with projects like planting bee gardens or giving presentations to schools about honeybees.

One way someone could get involved with the Honeybee Conservancy nonprofit in particular  is making a donation to help them provide for the programs they offer like the education and research. Another way one could support them is to organize field trips to their locations to help bring students and other groups to them to learn about the importance of bees. Some challenges may be raising enough money to make a considerable donation to this organization. Some people may not see this issue as important and may not donate money or time to help out. Another issue would be the difficulty organizing trips to their centers. Not many schools have the ability to send students on field trips because of school funding or other roadblocks.

Nonprofits have different levels one could participate at that would correlate to the “Justice-Oriented Citizen” model. On the “Personally Responsible Citizen” level you would have people making donations to the nonprofit every so often to help them fund their programs. On the “Participatory Citizen” level would be people organizing group field trips to visit nonprofit centers to learn about their missions and the importance of their goals. On the “Social Justice-Oriented Citizen” level would be the people who are running these nonprofits in order to make an impact on the issue they are going to focus on like the honeybee population decline for instance.

I looked at a few videos of representatives of small non profits describing what they do in their nonprofit does to help honeybees. One thing that stuck out to me was how involved with beekeeping these nonprofits are. In every video I saw people working to create healthy bee colonies that will thrive in their area. Each nonprofit expressed that one of their key goals was to provide education about bees to the public as well. One nonprofit, The Sustainable Honeybee Program , focused also on training their keepers to pay attention to the behavior of their bees to make sure they are thriving and adapting to their environments well enough to be healthy. Another nonprofit, Baltimore Honey, emphasized the importance of providing only the best habitat and resources for their bee colonies like not using smoke while harvesting and giving them only real flower nectar for food.

Social Enterprise Lens

Social enterprise can be described as a company that uses business methods to advance a social or environmental issue and make a profit. Some social enterprises, specifically those in Europe, are training unemployed citizens to be beekeepers in urban areas to help bring up bee populations in the area. They are also donating hives and bees to local communities to help provide habitat for bees in urban areas. These social enterprises are also bringing awareness to the locals about the declining bee population and teaching them how they can help the bees by planting flowers for the bees in the area to pollinate.

I could get more involved with my issue when I support social enterprises in a few ways. I could help donate money to support their efforts to educate people about bee population decline. I could get involved by educating people myself alongside a social enterprise to bring awareness. I could advertise a certain social enterprise that I think are doing the best at helping bees to the public to gain more support. Some challenges could be getting the public sphere to listen and understand the issues concerning the decline with bees. Bees are a very important part of our way of life and without them everything would collapse. Some people don’t understand how important they are or how urgent the need to save them is. Another challenge would be raising money to donate to social enterprises. By raising money I am getting more involved with my issue but by myself I can’t make a sizable donation. This would require also educating the masses about the issue and most people would argue that other issues are more worth their time and money and may not contribute.

There are some important things to consider when viewing this issue through a social enterprise lens. One would be that in order to make a difference you need to have support from the public as I have emphasized before. Not only do you need money to support the cause but you also need manpower to carry out programs you intend to help the bees. Another important thing to keep in mind is the methods in which you advertise your message. Social enterprises use business methods to market their cause. In order to have a business you need to advertise what it is you’re doing. If you advertise well enough and to as many people as possible you can get that well needed support for the bees that you’re looking for.

In a social enterprise there are participants who operate on different levels of the “Justice-Oriented Citizen Model”. On the level of “Personally Responsible” I would put the people who would donate some money to a social enterprise cause when asked to. On the “Participatory Citizen” level would be the people going door to door educating people about an issue or organizing a fundraiser for the issue. On the “Social-Justice Oriented Citizen” level I would put the people in the social enterprise who identify ways to address the issues causes and comes up with projects to help solve the issue.

The TED talk I found featured two women representatives from The Honey Club which is a social enterprise that raises bees and creates gardens for the bees and sells the honey to benefit bees and the continuation of their business. The main things I noticed from their presentation was how much was done in the business because of local “young people” volunteers. They had a lot of teenage volunteers who would basically transform an area into a garden and by doing that they helped the business provide a habitat for bees but they also changed who they were for the better. One volunteer wrote to The Honey Club after she volunteered saying that it really impacted her. She felt more comfortable working with adults and she is also more comfortable being around bees.

Issue Exploration

For my research, I decided to study three issues concerning wildlife. One issue is the declining numbers of honey bees. One species of honey bees was very recently put on the endangered species list due to the declining population sizes. This issue is important to me because I personally believe that Bees are very interesting creatures and because they are very important. They are significant to society because without Bees we wouldn’t have one. They play an integral part to the environment which I shall discuss later in my report. Another issue I researched was the growing coyote populations in urban areas. Coyotes are starting to live in city areas and are surprisingly thriving. I find this very fascinating and I really love coyotes so this issues sounded interesting to learn more about. Concerning society, this issue is important because Coyotes are getting more up close and personal with large human populations. The last issue I chose to explore is how bats are spreading the rabies virus in Australia and Africa. I wanted to study this because bats are my favorite animals and this virus could end up negatively impacting their livelihood and how the public perceives them. This issue would defiantly impact society because many people could be at risk of contracting the rabies virus that infected bats carry.

I chose to study issues in the wildlife area because I’m very passionate about the welfare of wild species and I wish to do as much as I can to understand the current issues concerning wildlife. Each issue I researched has impacts on the three pillars of sustainability. The issue concerning Bee populations has some very significant concerns to each. Society will be impacted because if the Bee populations continue to decline then people will lose valuable resources like fruits, vegetables, even meats. Without Bees to pollinate them, plants and animals in the environment will die. While the environment faces the decline of plants and animals, farmers and other food processing companies will lose their supply to sell which will greatly damage the economy. My second issue of the Coyote populations in urban areas will impact society because coyotes will have conflicts with humans and pets in urban settings which could lead to concerning injuries. The environment will change because urban areas will now have a new predator in the ecosystem to hunt and change the balance of the food chain. Economically, the studies that are being done on this new phenomenon will need new funding to further research the presence of Coyotes in the city. The last issue of Infectious Bats would harm society because people could contract the Rabies virus and get sick and die. This will also further stigmatize bats as generally harmful creatures which is not true. The environment would be impacted because other animals, besides humans, who encounter a Rabies infected bat could also get sick and die which could wipe out many individuals in an ecosystem. Similar to the Coyote issue, money would need to be spent on researching a solution to this issue and also money would need to be spent on treating infected people and animals that are infected with the virus.

After researching each issue, I decided to further study the problems associated with the declining Bee populations. I chose this issue because I believe that this issue has a huge impact on so many aspects of daily life that it can’t be ignored. When I continue to research this issue throughout the semester I intend to study a few different aspects to this problem. I know that each problem that impacts our society the most, generally isn’t easy to solve. I will study different sides to this issue to gain a fuller understanding of the complexity to this issue. I expect that there will be multiple challenges that I will face during my researching. One challenge I may face is finding multiple reliable sources that will provide the information I need to understand the problems behind the Bee population decline. I also may find understanding more scientific articles difficult when I try to gather data and information using science journals or articles. Regardless of the challenges I may face I look forward to studying such an important issue and trying to formulate my own solution to such a complex problem.

Columbus To-Do Part 2

My second restaurant I visited was Melt Bar and Grill. I went with my family on a Saturday night after the Ohio State and Northwestern game. It was busy and we had to wait for half an hour to be sat but it was worth it. While we waited, there was a cool mural in the front that has 105 famous people from Ohio and it had hidden objects in it for a scavenger hunt. There was also an arcade game table that you can play for free. The menus were on the back of album covers which was very cool. The dinner menu was completely grilled sandwiches from the classic grilled cheese to a banana and chocolate grilled sandwich. I had the Parma Italy which was breaded chicken, marinara, mozzarella, and Romano. The food was very delicious and it filled me up.  My favorite part besides the food was probably the décor because of how unique I was.

My brother and I at Melt Bar and Grill

My brother and I at Melt Bar and Grill

The Melt mural

The Melt mural

My sandwich

My sandwich

My third restaurant was Da Levee which is a Cajun food restaurant located on high street. I went to this restaurant with Kandace Glanville, a second-year ENR member and my mentor. We took a COTA to Da Levee on a Sunday around noon which made traffic very manageable. When we arrived, we ran into some more ENR members having lunch there and we sat and ate with them. Da Levee is a counter service restaurant where you go up to the cashier and order your food and pay right away. It was not very busy at all on Sunday so our food came out in about five minutes. The restaurant was kind of small and was decorated like a modern New Orleans restaurant with art that references jazz, alligators, Mardi Gras, and so on. I really loved the food. I got Jambalaya which also came with some slices of a toasted baguette. The food wasn’t very spicy which for me was a good thing. Da Levee also has some nice vegetarian options which the others enjoyed. I would recommend Da Levee to anyone who enjoys Cajun food. It is very affordable and delicious.

Jambalaya

Jambalaya

Kandace and I at Da Levee

Kandace and I at Da Levee

The fourth restaurant I visited was Schmidt’s which is a German restaurant located in German Village. I went with Valerie Blubaugh, a first-year ENR Scholar member. Valerie and I took a COTA bus down to German Village on Veteran’s Day around one in the afternoon. The wait for us to be seated was about an hour but thankfully the street that Schmidt’s is located on also has a few cute shops that we spent time exploring while we waited. The first store we went to was the Schmidt’s Fudge Shop. Inside there is not only freshly made fudge but also an assortment of candies and fun souvenirs. I bought some caramels and chocolate and they were delicious. Next, we went to a cute store called The Red Stable which is right next to Schmidt’s. The Red Stable is a cute gift shop that has lots of handmade, locally made, and unique gifts like license plate signs that say “Columbus”, jewelry, knit hats, and so on. I bought some homemade dog treats for my doggie that were peanut butter flavored. Lastly, we went to another gift shop called Helen Winnemore’s. This gift shop was more modern with unique kitchen utensils, decorations like dog clocks, candles, blankets, jewelry, and so on. The store was very cheery and the owners mingled with the customers like neighbors. Valerie and I got a warm welcome when we came back to eat at Schmidt’s despite the very busy atmosphere. We ordered some pretzel bites for an appetizer which were very good. I got a Reuben Sandwich which filled me up but it was delicious. We split one of Schmidt’s famous Cream Puffs and it was so good that I didn’t want to waste any of the cream that fell out of it. The cream puff was my favorite part of the meal. I highly recommend Schmidt’s to everyone, but allot time for a long wait and visit some of the shops in the area.

Schmidt's Sausage Haus

Schmidt’s Sausage Haus

Valarie and me in front of Schmidt's

Valarie and me in front of Schmidt’s

My sandwich

My sandwich

Our creampuff

Our creampuff

The last restaurant I visited was an Indian restaurant called Aab India located on Grandview Avenue. I went with Olivia Minnie who is a first-year ENR Scholar and one of my suitemates. Olivia and I took an Uber to Aab India for dinner on a Sunday. To our surprise, even though the outside of the restaurant looks like any old casual restaurant in the area, the inside looked like a restaurant you would take someone on a nice date to. The interior was decorated in elegant Indian style, there was soft Indian music playing, and the tables were covered in white table cloths complete with white napkins. We ordered our food soon after we were settled. I ordered a dish called Saag. I got the variety that I ordered had Spinach and Shrimp. We got white rice and Naan bread with our Saag. What was nice is they have options for vegetarians and vegans on the menu. They also have the option of how spicy you want your meal. The food was very good and it was a nice new experience. I would recommend Aab India to everyone because there are so many options for people

Our Meal

Our Meal

Olivia at Aab India with me

Olivia at Aab India with me

My favorite part of this project was going out with friends to new restaurants and trying new foods. I learned that Columbus has so many restaurants with different types of new food to experience. I really hope to go to more restaurants to try new foods around the city. I suggest to others who want to experience these wonderful restaurants to take advantage of the COTA buses. They made going to places like Schmidt’s in German Village very easy.