Final Impressions of My Journey

University Colloquium was truly an incredible class and one that exceeded my expectations coming in just ten weeks ago. The founding fathers of Florida Gulf Coast University were genius to require this course as it is very critical for the future of our planet. FGCU is at the fore front of sustainability on college campuses and it is great to be part of this and look back 10 years from now and use the information gained throughout this semester in a positive manner. Coming into this class, I had an open mind having heard mixed feeling about this course from many of my peers. I know that I’m a hard-worker and if something interests me, I will give it my all. I believe that since the first day of this course, I was looking forward to every activity and felt that I actually learned something and unfortunately as college students, we all have courses where at the end of the semester we tell ourselves, why I just spent 16 weeks and $2,000 on reading power-points. I wish more courses would be constructed similarly to University Colloquium in a sense that the course is composed of more than just tests but rather involves the student in activities such as class discussions, field trips and much more.

I really enjoyed meeting many of my classmates who come from all over the world and all have different majors and interests. My favorite reading throughout this semester would have to be State of the World as it opened my eyes to so much information. I also enjoyed reading about all of the different projects that have been taking place to better sustain our planet. I would have to say that my least favorite readings would have to come from the university colloquium reader as some of the excerpts lost my interest half way through and it was difficult for me at times to pay attention. Looking back, it is safe to say that I had learned the most amount of information from the videos that we had watched along with the weekly class discussions that had taken place. I really enjoyed the service learning project where I was able to participate at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood, FL and aid in picking up trash and recycling. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to make a difference in our society and I am grateful that I was able to allocate 10 hours of my time and make my neighborhood a cleaner and friendlier place for others to enjoy. Without this course, I would have never participated in my service learning project as I have a very busy schedule with my jobs.

Looking back at the past ten weeks, I do not have any suggestions for activities that should be edited or discarded as I enjoyed each and every one of them. I believe the books were top-notch and the university colloquium reader could have been improved but otherwise, I wish every course can be setup like this one to give all students an opportunity to engage in class discussions and utilize what they learn in the real world.

Thank you for the opportunity and excellent semester. I wish everybody the best in their future endeavors and may we all share the knowledge gained with at least one of our friends in order to make our world a better place for others.

God Bless!

Environment in the News: Tests start on "super skimmer" for Gulf oil spill

After reading the news this morning on the Environmental News Network, I stumbled across an interesting article I would like to share with my readers and followers: http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/41506

This article discusses the update of the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Sean Gardner

Sense of Place Interview: What really is their philospophy on sustainability, ecological perspective and sense of place?

For this journal entry, I interviewed my grandmother who was born in 1948 and has lived in both Europe and the United States and has been a witness to the many positive and negative changes the world has been through. I have mentioned to her this colloquium course I am currently part of and she is aware of the sustainable things FGCU is doing to make our planet our better place one day at a time. For the most part she believes that everyone should work together and be more sustainable in order to reverse all of the damage we have done to our planet. She currently resides in New York City and wishes people can be more sustainable and think of the environment rather than go the easy way out. She recycles and does not like to waste anything. I think that her viewpoints originated from her upbringing more so than this whole green revolution that is going on now.

Growing up my grandmother did not have a lot and whatever she did was shared amongst five people. Her attitude and outlook on food and water is different than it is today as we are spoiled today with all of our resources that are provided to us and growing up for her in the former USSR, they were lucky when they had food on the table and if they did, a piece of bread was shared by each family member. She made her own clothes for school; she did not waste food or water, walked to anywhere she needed to be and lived a very sustainable lifestyle. When cell-phones were introduced many years ago, she laughed when my dad offered to buy one for her and said she will never have any use for it (today she uses it all the time). She says that will all of the technology in the world, people have gotten lazy and their viewpoints and goals have dramatically changed. When I was talking to my grandmother it brought me back to the discussion we had in our class discussion about religion and sustainability. In my opinion, there is a direct correlation between people who are religious have a different viewpoint of the world and see it more as a beautiful creation that should be cherished, so those people I think are more inclined to protecting it. We both have hope for the future and we need to seek ways to become a better sustainable environment and make a better place for everybody.

Her perspective on what I have been learning this semester is that courses like this should be offered and required for all college students as this is something that should be taught to us from an early age in order to avoid our bad habits that have been developed over time. She feels our education system is very weak and it is in comparison with European schools as children in elementary and junior high schools are unaware of living a sustainable lifestyle. After sharing with her my experiences thus far in the University colloquium course, she was very happy that I have been provided with this opportunity and should take complete advantage of the information I have gained over the previous two months.

Note: Photo's were taken from the following sources:
http://frontiers.ucdavis.edu/images/photos/9b/sustainability_metaphor_320.jpg
http://www.eaststaffsbc.gov.uk/SiteCollectionImages/Environment%20Image.jpg
http://www.fgcu.edu/EHS/Images/QEP.jpg

Field Trip #5- Fort Lauderdale History Center

On the first day of the semester, I had looked at the course syllabus and noted the field trips that were required for this course. I knew there was a lot of work to be completed ahead of me in order to achieve my course goals but the one field trip that stood out was Field Trip #5, visiting an urban area and local history museum. Growing up in a large city, NYC, and now living in Fort Lauderdale, my history till today was limited of how the natural environment interfaces with our human environment in the present and in the past. As I live outside of SW Florida, I got my field trip pre-approved by Professor Davis and I was both excited and eager to learn more about this history of Fort Lauderdale. On June 12, 2010 I visited the Fort Lauderdale History center and I was simply amazed!

The Fort Lauderdale History center is located in downtown Fort Lauderdale, right off of Broward Blvd and Andrews Ave. I really enjoyed my trip as despite having been to Fort Lauderdale numerous amounts of times, I had never been in the area of the history center nor knew much about Fort Lauderdale other than the beach and the cheesecake factory. Inside the history center, it was so quaint and charming but it was packed with history of this area. The tour guide was so nice and knowledgeable it really made for a great tour and experience. Upon entering the history center, I entered the New River Inn which was built in 1905 and was the first building in Broward County to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also the oldest tourist hotel in Broward County (Broward County is the county which comprises of Fort Lauderdale). I later learned that it was built of hollow concrete blocks made with sand barged from the beach and this later set the standard for construction in south Florida. The hotel operated until 1924 and had 24 guest rooms (see pictures below). The museum had a lot of cool artifacts and replicas for being so small. The artifacts covered from prehistoric animals, to the different local tribes of Indians and the days of when people arrived to Fort Lauderdale not catch some rays but for many other reasons.

Upon entering the museum, I was greeted by the “innkeeper” whose name I unfortunately forgot. She began providing me with many different facts and interesting things about the history of Fort Lauderdale. Some of the things she had mentioned that Fort Lauderdale is known as the “Venice of America” for its extensive system of waterways, including the New River, Intracoastal Waterway and a large number of canals. Also, for over 5,000 years people had been drawn to Fort Lauderdale. She also mentioned that the city of Fort Lauderdale is named for a Second Seminole War fortification built on the banks of the New River in 1838. Also, in the 1920s, Fort Lauderdale began changing from an agricultural community to a resort town. She told me that at the time the population doubled and then tripled in the early years of the decade and as a result many of the City’s finest residential developments date from this era. The deadly hurricane of 1926 really destroyed Fort Lauderdale and as a result many residents left and never returned and South Florida had gone into an economic depression three years ahead of the rest of the nation.
I really enjoyed everything and my expectations coming in were high but the museum, location surpassed what I was expecting. Honestly, there was nothing I had disliked about the museum except for the meter parking outside the museum. There were many things that had an impact on me as I did not grow up in this area and after moving here, I have only lived for 2-3 years if not including my three years of college that I have attended thus far and I really got a great understanding of Fort Lauderdale and beyond. At the Fort Lauderdale History Center, there was the “Replica Schoolhouse” which was built in 1899 and was Broward County’s first schoolhouse and it had just one teacher and nine students. The teacher was 18 year old, Ivy Julia Cromartie! In regards to redesigning the urban area and encouraging more community involvement, I personally think the city of Fort Lauderdale has done a terrific job with preserving the old habitat and providing a wide array of parks and nature centers for our current generation to enjoy. I think they can do a better job in making it a little bit more citizen-friendly and creating ways that would encourage more community engagement.

I would like to thank Professor Sarah Davis for this wonderful opportunity I will never forget and I urge you to visit the Fort Lauderdale History center if you are ever in town. For just $5-10 (depending on age), you will digest a vast amount of information that you can share with your loved ones and really have a true understanding of the place you call “home” today. Thank you and god bless!
Note: All pictures included in this entry have been taken by me. (Opposed to the first 3 field trips, my brother was unavailable to take pictures of me and thus I took pictures myself).

Obama Plans to Force BP’s Hand on Oil Spill Fund

After reading the news today, I came across a interesting article about the recent oil spill in the Gulf Coast and the impact it is having on our environment today.

For those who are interested in reading more about the update of the BP situation that is occurring in the Gulf, here is a great update on it: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/us/14spill.html?ref=earth



Photo courtesty of Sean Gardner of Reuters

Field Trip #4- Agricultural Area- Natural Wonders- Coconut Creek, FL

As I reside outside of Southwest Florida, field trip #4 was designated as an agricultural area and living in a large city, I knew I would have to travel a bit to find one. After receiving a pre-approval by Professor Davis on June 10, I decided to go up to Coconut Creek which is a nice 45 minute drive from my house to visit “Natural Wonders”. Coming in to this field trip, I really was unsure of what to expect but as I drove to entrance I was amazed of how beautiful the place really was. Some background info on Natural Wonders is that it is a five acre nursery, with 30,000 plants growing vertically in a hydro-ponic growing system. They grow a variety of strawberries, peppers, lettuces, spinach and much more. I was really able to get a first-hand look at how this hydro-ponic farm operates.

What I learned from my trip is that Natural Wonders replaces the soil with a natural growing media that is clean and porous. These soil substitutes consist of coconut fibre, perlite, and sometimes vermiculite. Also, these materials contain very little, if any nutrients that can be absorbed by the plants, but provide a perfect soil substitute. The nutrient solution is the most important part of the system and Natural Wonders was truly a revitalizing moment for me.

What I learned off of the Echo website is that Echo is a non-profit organization who uses science and technology to help the poor. It exists for the people who work internationally with the poor to be more effective in agriculture.

My trip to Natural Wonders was a very enjoyable one as it was great to see a place that actually cares about our environment and is not taking any shortcuts in providing consumers with the highest-quality products that are eco-friendly. The one thing that I really did not enjoy was all of the bugs and mosquitoes that were flying around and I can honestly say that I have never been around as many bugs and got as much mosquito bites in my entire life. I’m sure they can find ways of preventing this but this is the only thing that I did not enjoy. My initial impression was that Natural Wonders was a large natural area where they grow many plants and fruits naturally.

Growing up in a large city where I lived in a semi-detached house with no garden or backyard, I really have zero experience with growing plants or gardening. I honestly do not know much about it but was very excited when I was given the opportunity to visit Natural Wonders for my field trip. It would be difficult for me to grown any of my food but I think my outlook and perspective has changed as a result of this field trip. I understand the importance of it and how to make our planet and environment a better place for all.

Please see some photos of Natural Wonders and all photos included have been taken by me. Thank you and god bless!

Till next time…

Field Trip #3- Anne Kolb Nature Center -Hollywood,FL

The field trip to the Anne Kolb Nature Center was very informative and a great experience. As I am also completing my service-learning component at the Anne Kolb Nature Center, I was aware of the facilities offered and was aware of where the trails were. However, I have never been on the 3 trails they have and I was dumbfounded from the breathtaking views I saw along the trails. First off, the seawater tides advance inward and mingle with inland fresh water in the transition between land and sea. Also, the mangrove ecosystem represents a very diverse assemblage of uniquely adapted plants and animals. I first walked along the Lake Observation trail which happened to be my favorite of the three. At first sight, the vegetation appeared to be a monotonous tangle of branches and roots but it means survival to many wild creatures. There were also many red and black mangroves and the red mangrove, with its broad canopy and submerged based, crosses terrestrial and marine environments. The black mangroves are well adapted to growing in saline-saturated soils and are found at elevations that are covered by high tide but exposed at low tide.

The second trail, mud flat trail had mud flats that occur along waterways that are affected by the tides. Birds were the primary users of the mud flat for feeding and resting and herons and egrets wade in the shallows. As I started walking along the third trail, there was a construction sign posted that said not to proceed as it is a construction zone. I think that I will visit more preserves like this in the future as I really had a great time and experience at the Anne Kolb nature center. My thoughts on using tax dollars for land preservation is great in a way that there are natural areas where people actually can come, relax and enjoy nature. It gives us the opportunity to get away from other things and in return our tax dollars are actually put to good cause rather than replacing or paving a road that was just done a few years ago. I think that our tax dollars are put to waste in a lot of other areas that are completely unnecessary during an economic recession but land preservation should be a requirement. This program and nature center is something good and beneficial, so I support it 100%.

I had a great overall impression of the trip and will definitely return someday in the future especially when considering its location and the benefits of the center. The lake observation trail which had 1,231 foot boardwalk was my favorite part of the trip along with the 5 story, 68 feet tall observation tower. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable walk (despite the 95 degree heat) and it was very interesting to see all of the mangroves. I am thankful for the opportunity given as without this requirement, I would not have visited the trails and would have never seen and learned as much as I did today.

Note: All photos included in this post have been taken by myself or the my brother (the person taking pictures of me).