Personal Statement

1.    What are my concerns?

2.     What are my questions?

3.     What are my passions?

4.     What are my goals?  

One of my biggest concerns is that the majority of people do not understand the magnitude of the environmental problems that we are creating because of our way of life.  It is easy to place the blame on others and turn a blind eye to them but that will leave those problems unsolved.  Another concern that I have is the general apathy toward environmental issues. It is unnerving that the only time you hear any concern is when fuel prices begin to skyrocket, and then as soon as they stabilize again the concern disappears. There is a stigma that goes along with being an environmentalist; that you are a little “off your rocker,” sitting around all day hugging trees and laying in the grass. An environmentalist is simply a person who is conscious about environmental issues and protecting the state of the Earth. Reality is everyone should be an environmentalist, because the Earth is the one thing that everyone has in common. Fact is the choices you make today will ultimately impact future generations.

My main questions about sustainability all revolve around individual action. What can I do as an individual to make a greater impact? How can I help educate others and interest them in sustainability? I also have a lot of questions about the green job economy. Where can I find information on it, and what kinds of jobs are available? What are the different types of clean energy? How can we influence the government to invest more time and money into these resources?

I am extremely passionate about environmental issues and sustainability. I am passionate about knowledge and learning as much as I can about these issues to make the greatest impact possible. I have worked and volunteered in many different environmental fields including: organic gardening, sustainable food, recycling, green building, sustainable living, urban & regional planning (specifically public transportation at UNF), clean energy, biology and chemistry field work, biology and chemistry lab work, water analysis testing, and much more. I have also been the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology 2010 Fellow for the Southeastern United States. I have been a student assistant at the UNF Environmental Center since 2007 and since then have also been the student representative for the College of Arts & Sciences on UNF’s Environmental Executive Board.

My goals are to learn as much as I can about environmental issues and sustainability. I also want to learn about the green economy so I can eventually find a green career that will allow me to help educate more people on the significance of these problems, and also provide me with the knowledge to help find the solutions to these problems.