1. My signature project, a Buck-I-SERV trip, was centered around trail restoration service work in Sedona, Arizona. As a group of students with the guidance of national park workers, we worked to restore, create, and maintain a popular trail after it had been destroyed by flooding in the winter. Following the service work, we began a backpacking trip into the Grand Canyon, which was subsequently followed by white-water rafting down the Colorado River to conclude the trip.
2. Within my first day of the trip, my view of the natural world began to change, and throughout the trip I began to recognize and respect nature in its purest and most natural form. Prior to the trip, I only had a superficial view of nature and the natural world. Most of my assumptions of nature came from what I have learned in school and video clips I have seen through the media, but physically being immersed in nature brought out my respect and recognition. I had always assumed that there were plenty of people to take care of nature for us, but quickly learned how few people are employed to protect our natural parks. This only heightened my realization that it takes everyone to keep the natural world as it is. I did not understand the impact that a single person can have in nature to other people, the wildlife, and each and every tiny ecosystem. I realized that nature is a gift that needs to be preserved. Being within nature also allowed me to understand myself a little bit better. I was able to see myself as part of something bigger where I could focus more on the world around me and less about me individually. My appreciation of the natural world has increased tenfold from the project.
3. My perspective first changed when I was introduced to the seven principles of Leave No Trace. They provide basic practices for anyone in the outdoors and backcountry setting, such as leaving what you find, respecting wildlife, minimizing your impact on the environment, and how to properly dispose of waste. Leave No Trace opened my eyes to how much we affect nature, and following the principles helped me recognize and respect the natural world. I learned that setting up a small rock pile just because “it’s fun” can damage smaller ecosystems and mislead other hikers away from the trail. At its core, nature is beautiful, and preventing the negative impact that we have on it is important. The principles affected me by leaving me with the idea that it is important to leave nature and other things in life as I find them, so others can have the same amazing experience that I had.
The relationships I formed with the group of OSU students and national park staff led me to understand the importance of protecting the parks and nature. Asking questions and learning from the national park staff taught me the importance and difficulties of preserving the natural world. Their appreciativeness of our service showed me the great lengths they normally go through to preserve our parks, and that we always need more people to help protect nature. This affected me by allowing me to see that our efforts together are extremely impactful, and it encourages me to maintain efforts of preservation in my future. The interactions with locals and passerby hikers also left me with a lasting effect, as they were amazed by the progress we had made in such a short time. This was encouraging for me and showed me that even smaller and shorter acts of service can make a big impact on the people around us.
Lastly, I was able to understand myself better through quiet, impactful reflections that we would have either individually at certain points or as a group in the mornings or evenings around the fire. In the mornings when we were all together as a group we would do group readings, and then attribute that to our current situation. By reflecting, I was able to look at other things that were going on around me, and not just things only affecting me, and I hope to carry this forward with me. Several times after a long day or after finishing a part of the journey, we would have brief quiet times while driving to reflect on what we had accomplished, which helped me be able to slow life down and look past the face value of things. I could look less at what I achieved individually and more at what we achieved as a group. These reflections affected me by causing me to slow down from time to time. Otherwise, I would not have been able to learn from these reflections and would have left with a mere superficial value of achievement. I will continue to pause from time to time to allow myself to reflect for a deeper understanding.
4. My new perspective of nature and the natural world is valuable for my life because it adds to academic goals and my personal life. As a biology major, I have acquired more appreciation towards nature and an eagerness to expand my biological interests to a natural setting including plants and animals. I am excited to expand upon what I have learned from this trip as I begin to complete more core classes for my biology major. Additionally, this trip and these classes bring about the idea of working or volunteering for national parks in the future where I can use my expertise. This could lead to valuable experience in the job market as I work on professional goals. Finally, being able to understand myself better improves my personal life as I work to make meaning of things I accomplish within and outside of the classroom. The valuable habits I gained are helping me grow and change as a person as I go on in life.
