After participating in the Environmental and Natural Resources Scholars program I have done some slight changes in the way that I live my daily life. Before being in the scholars program I was very unaware of the environment issues that are going on around us and around the world. But now that I have some knowledge I have been able to apply that to my daily routing such us instead of buying water bottles every day, now I have a reusable water bottle that I just refill each day and use. Also, before I didn’t see the importance of recycling so I didn’t take it seriously but now I pay more attention to everything I throw away to see if I can recycle it. When going grocery shopping now I look at all the labels and try to buy products that are organic and free range meat to stop the support of putting chemicals when it comes to big agriculture plants and also local farming. Other changes that I would like to make is to volunteer more around the Ohio State area and to go to more events with my scholars group. This semester was hard for me to be as involved as I would have like to be with ENR because I had classes on Monday and Wednesdays from 7-10 pm and a lot of the events that were hosted by ENR fell on those days and time. Also this semester I had to go home a lot on the weekends so I missed out on some good service opportunities like building local gardens. But next year I’m going to try harder though to look for service opportunities around me that involve the environment and sustainability of the world and attend. Some of the things that have prompted my choices to live differently is my involvement with the ENR scholars program. Being in the program has made me more knowledgeable of the things that are happening with the environment and that even if I don’t feel like I’m making a huge difference with the things that I’m doing is that it still counts and little by little we can start making a difference. What I’m taking from the world around me is that we as human beings have been taking advantage of the world around us without thinking about the consequences in the future. Because the world has been here for a long time people think that it’s always going to be here and be habitable but with all the pollution and waste that humans have been putting into the world is going to backfire and it’s already starting to backfire with making some cities around the world almost inhabitable because of the quality of the air that they are breathing. Also putting chemicals into natural bodies of water has made some cities water unusable and undrinkable such as the Flint Water Crisis that is going on today. So knowing that those things are going on around the world I have taken upon myself to not drive unless it’s absolutely necessary and if it is I would take a public transit type of transportation to cut out as much smoke as I can from putting out in the world. Also water wise I try to keep it as pure as possible when I put it back onto the world and try to contaminate public waters as little as possible. My Earth Month action plan has been fine. It was to help raise funds for non-profit organizations that helps make useable water available for under developing countries and cities. Because it was kind off last minute coming up with this plan over summer I’m going to try harder to find an organization that I can volunteer and get involved in instead of just donating money. Because donating money to me is like taking the easy way out and because I’m passionate about this issue I want to be involved hands on.

[ “Year in Review”  is where you should reflect on the past year and show how you have evolved as a person and as a student.  You may want to focus on your growth in a particular area (as a leader, scholar, researcher, etc.) or you may want to talk about your overall experience over the past year.  For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]