Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Major: Biological Engineering
Favorite LC event: Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) conference

My name is Nathan Horstman, and I’m currently a first year biological engineering major. I was originally majoring in environmental science, but switched once I realized that I could incorporate the study of biology into a degree that would allow me to develop more sustainable technologies. This was of a particular importance to me because I am very interested in where our food comes from and the sustainable, or in most cases unsustainable, farming practices that most American farmers use. This lead me to the SUSTAINS learning community, and the chance to attend this year’s Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) conference.

This was an extremely cool experience for me because of my interest in sustainable and organic farming, something that is at the heart of the OEFFA, and one of the big topics of the conference. Having never been to anything like this, the amount of topics I could explore astonished me. There were four workshop sessions for the day we went, (the conference was over a saturday and sunday, we went on saturday) and each session had as many as ten workshops to choose from. They ranged in topics from a lecture on the basics of raising bison, how to eat locally grown food year around, and everything in between. The day closed with a keynote speech about shaping the future of our food system by agriculture journalist Alan Guebert, author of the column Farm and Food File, and the soon to be published book, The Land of Milk and Uncle Honey: Memories From the Farm of my Youth. He analyzed how farming has evolved in the past 50 years and how it will continue evolving in the coming 25 years, hopefully into a more sustainable and environmentally friendly practice. The entire conference was extremely interesting, and I am so happy that I had this opportunity through SUSTAINS.

Hometown: Columbus, OH
Major: Environmental Policy and Decision Making
Favorite SUSTAINS LC Event: volunteering with Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW)

I’m Gemma Bush and I’m and Environmental Policy and Decision Making major. I originally was interested in a learning community because…I liked the idea of having a way to make connections and find common ground with people. I picked SUSTAINS because I was really passionate about the environment, and I thought it sounded like fun! I also thought it would be cool and helpful to be around people who were taking some of the same classes I was and who cared about the environment the way I did.
My favorite event with SUSTAINS was when we volunteered to help FLOW (Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed) do a river clean-up. We went and picked up trash along the river bank. We got into some hard to reach places, getting plastic stuck high in trees and climbing over rocks and through mud to get further along the trail. I felt like an environmental super hero by the time we were done!

Hometown: Brownsburg, Indiana
Major: Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability.
Specialization: International Develoopment
Favorite SUSTAINS LC Event: Byrd Polar Research Center

My name is Carolyn Voigt, and I’m a first-year EEDS major! I joined SUSTAINS for the experience of collaborating with like-minded peers who came from a plethora of majors, contributing to a diverse assemblage of individuals! SUSTAINS is ideal in that its small size supports an immediate community atmosphere-for a freshman, this aspect of SUSTAINS is truly beneficial in the first weeks of school when an inviting community counterbalances the chaos and instability of transitioning to college life! Despite working through a heavy course-load, starting a part-time job, and struggling with knowing no one as an out-of-state student, SUSTAINS was a constant that I always felt comfortable in.

This community atmosphere is developed further when SUSTAINS is able to attend the most unique experiences! From cleaning-up the Olentangy River to attending community night at COSI to meeting with incredible individuals who have made major contributions to the study of sustainability, SUSTAINS participates in opportunities that I never would have been afforded otherwise! My favorite experience to date was SUSTAINS’ tour of the Byrd Polar Research Center! Learning about OSU’s role as an international leader in glacial studies and climate change was an incredible experience, only beat by walking into the center’s -20° F freezer to look at ice cores they had drilled from around the world, including from Mt. Kilimanjaro!

SUSTAINS has by far been the most influential part of my college experience so far, as I continue to make connections around the university from events SUSTAINS has participated in. Currently, as a freshman, I’m working out a possible internship opportunity working with a professor SUSTAINS had collaborated with earlier this year! I cannot emphasize the impact SUSTAINS has made in my life, and genuinely recommend joining to anyone who wants an inviting community centered on the exploration of sustainability!