W&M loves the environment!

Hello sophomore year! Between taking six classes a day, TA-ing for Chinese, leading an international service trip, being an eco ambassador, attending the Career Center‘s career seminars, cooking lots of yummy food all the time in the Chinese house (which has been quite a fun adventure!), interviewing for local internships and accidentally biking to Busch Gardens (also an adventure), catching the sniffles, catching up with old friends and making new ones, and finding time to do fun things like go canoeing (I’ve just discovered the boat house!) and ride roller coasters, life has been quite hectic! Not to mention sophomore year is the year you’re supposed to figure out your major!

After seeing the film Food, Inc. (go see it!!) and attending a panel discussion afterwards which felt like a secret meeting of revolutionaries, I realized that I wanted to major in environmental science. Possibly study nutrition! So this semester I’m taking a whole lot of intro classes which has been exhausting, BUT, I’ve gotten involved with all the green stuff that’s happening on campus, and it’s awesome!

Last week, my roomie and I went to see Adam Werbach, former Sierra Club president and current CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S talk about sustainability, which was really inspiring! He’s gotten our school to do DOTs, which stands for “Do One Thing,” which means everyone pledges to do one thing that will be beneficial to anyone, and slowly we can change our collective behavior. (My roomie’s DOT is to be nicer to me. I have high hopes.)

I’ve recently become the eco ambassador for the department of modern languages and literatures, which means I get to work with two awesome professors in the department, Regina Root and Anita Angelone, on a sustainability plan! You can read about what we’re doing at the new blog I’ve created! (I have way too many blogs.)

Being an eco ambassador’s been really great. I’ve gotten to meet so many really cool people and learn about what our school has done to become more sustainable, which is a whole lot! I mean, we spent six hours in a meeting room learning about just some of it! And it’s all because the faculty and students here care a ton about the environment and are willing and able to help! President Reveley said something about how as eco ambassadors, we’re approaching the issue of sustainability in the same way William and Mary approaches everything: with no money but lots of eager people…people with “enormous throbbing brains.”

This statement seems to capture the spirit of William and Mary, and I love it.