Personal Narrative: My Club Day At My Community College

As a highly involved and environmentally conscious student, Shamae Burrell was always present at bake sales, rallies and cooperative events on campus involving sustainability and environmental justice. She had many friends who were also environmental and social justice activists, whom she highly supported. Shamae begun her freshman year elected to her dorm’s hall counsel representing her floor. She then became involved in an on campus fraternity named Alpha Phi Omega which allowed her to exhibit her innate interests in community service and fellowship with her fellow brothers in the organization. During her summers, she worked for environmental justice organizations organizing for local campaigns such as ceasing natural gas pipeline leaks

After holding a leadership role in that club I took AP environmental science. After completing the inspiring class, I knew that I wanted to pursue a field in environmental studies. I was also inspired by my family to pursue a field in the environment. My uncle created the Trash Wheel; a device that floats in the Baltimore harbor and cleans trash from inlets, and my mother works in sustainability at Anne Arundel Medical Center.  I also participated in mock trial in high school, in which I became comfortable with public speaking and creating well-written arguments.

An environmental group that I would be willing to join is the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club mission statement is “To explore, enjoy and protect the planet. To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out those objectives.” Some of the core beliefs that this club has is that the members must have an understanding of the problem they are trying to solve from the local weather all the way to the global level. The club also believes that the members must not only solve/help a problem that will best benefit the environment, but that the members must have a passion for the issue in order to solve it correctly.

Furthermore, I founded and serve as President of the PWHS Environmental Club, which is devoted to the ideals of environmentalism and conservation. Through this club, I organized bi-monthly courtyard cleanups to cleanup the PWHS campus, a vigorous anti-littering campaign, a recycling drive, and the coordination of Earth Week activities to spread the gospel of environmentalism. As well, I serve as the student representative on the PWHS Site Based Management Committee, and through this position I fight for a better Parkwood that is focused on love, respect, and academic advancement. Finally, I serve as Chairman of the Union County Teen Democrats and Executive Vice-Chairman of the North Carolina Association of Teen Democrats; and through these means I advocate for a better North Carolina by organizing fundraising events for local and statewide candidates, canvassing through phone-banking and person-to-person interaction, assisting at town fairs and community outreach events, and using my public speaking skills to articulate a vision for a greater America.

My high school years have been filled with many great memories; it is safe to say that I had an enjoyable high school experience. Some of my most unforgettable moments of my high school career have been in Beta Club. In 9th grade, I joined the Beta Club at my school. I joined because I knew that this club was an organization for those who love to serve others, and I know that decision will have a lasting impact on my life as well as on others’ lives. I was elected President of the Beta Club at my school in 11th grade. I led my club of about 40 members throughout the year as we took part in various service activities such as: trash pickup for Adopt a Highway, sponsoring a child for the holidays, and visiting local elementary schools to read

An experience that has greatly influenced my understanding of the world has been my participation in Florida Atlantic University’s Pine Jog Fellowship. The Pine Jog Fellowship is a three-semester program that focuses on environmental improvement and education. In the Pine Jog Fellowship I have had the opportunity to develop my own environmental service projects that would benefit my community. During one semester of my fellowship, I coordinated beach clean-ups for Lake Worth Beach. I recruited over sixty people and collectively, we recycled and threw away over one hundred pounds of trash off of Lake Worth Beach. I also spoke to local fishermen and educated them on the dangers of throwing monofilament fishing line into the ocean. During the

Frantic thoughts raced through my mind as I opened the door of my mother’s beloved red Dodge Charger. I looked over at my mother in the driver’s seat, waving me on and wishing me luck, trying to cheer me up.

If I could go back in time and relive a particularly difficult moment in my life, I will work part-time in the weekend in high school. I want to save my money. I want to travel other state. I also want to see my childhood friends. I wish I spend more time to have fun with my friends when I was young. When I first came here I went to school and I didn't how many class I have to take the class and to pass the MACS. I spent one more year to get my diploma. I wish if I know all this I will take class that require. I will go to Middlesex Community College early to practice the MACS because they have MACS class. After I going Middlesex Community College I pass the MACS. It is very helpful to go there. I learned a lot of MACS how to answer the open

When I first arrived at the University of Michigan, I was pleasantly surprised to find out the first service event we were doing was invasive species management in the Huron watershed. Cutting down buckthorn and picking invasive species seeds were both activities very familiar to me. Growing up in Chicago, my middle and elementary school had done nearly the exact same thing every year in the Chicago River watershed. Going out into the woods and helping the often forgotten organic parts of our community was certainly a pleasant surprise for me. I initially thought going to college that almost everything I would be experiencing would be new and exciting, yet here I was coming full circle right back to where I had first started learning about community involvement. More often than not, our expectations of things do not match their true forms.

Although recreation and education largely contribute to the Sierra Clubs purpose, it all starts with conservation. Through the tireless efforts of the club’s founders, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers, the small grassroots movement that started as a group of friends is largely responsible for creation of our national parks, clean-fuel initiatives, and sustainable agriculture practices. In the 1950’s to better align itself with issues that directly affected the natural wildlife habitat, the club changed their emphasis from conservation to environmentalism. “This meant that by its tenth decade the Sierra Club was deeply involved in solving new and challenging problems” (pg. 10). “Air quality in many U.S. cities was causing lung disease, industries poured wastes into the nation’s waterways with impunity, and nearly every day someone discovered children playing on an abandoned toxic-waste dump” (pg. 10). Currently the environmental conservation efforts of the Sierra Club have assisted in creating numerous government organizations to regulate industrial waste, land management, air pollution just to name a few. The Sierra Club is a good example of how a group of environmental conservationists can unite with a common goal and change federal, and local policies to preserve the earth for generations to

When I was little I loved building things. I built complicated Rube Goldberg machines, Lego cities, and towering snow forts. However, I did not know that I wanted to go into a engineering field until my experience in the Madison West Rocket Club.

Looking back at my life to where I am now. I can honestly admit if I did not come to Community College my life would have been different. Here at community college I have made the most out of my experience I not only saved a significant amount of money but, furthermore I have grown not only with myself but with my grades as well. I struggled with a numerous of things in high school. However here at college I actually took the time to listen and observe. I have made friends and individuals that I can honestly call my family. I have taken the initiative to progress in my chosen fields.

A club that I have enjoyed being in since fifth grade is Beta Club. Currently I am the Historian in my high school Beta Club. Some people may believe Beta Club only focuses on academics, but it does so much more. Even though academics is a big part of the club, we also focus on leadership, achievement, character, and service. Our club traveled to the national convention to compete about a year ago. A competition I entered was called the “Meeting of the Minds”, and I was on a team with three other people. We went in not expecting to win anything, because our school does not seem to place much at state conventions, but we tried our best. To our surprise we placed first in the competition. It was so exciting when we realized we won first.

Last year I took a few classes at Columbus State Community College. There were definitely some changes that I had to make so my life could still run smoothly. Some of the things that changed were my extracurricular activities. I had to swim less often than before because I had classes or homework that I needed to do. My study habits didn’t change very much, surprisingly. I still did my work sooner instead of later. I won’t say I always did it as soon as I could because while that would have been optimal it didn’t always work out. And I made sure I always got the work that was due first, done first. Also during the school year my classes at Columbus State were on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. In addition to those I still had all

The Students for Environmental Action or the SEA club, which meets every Wednesday from 1:30pm to 2:30pm in the Index Hall room 101, are not only learning how to become more sustainable in a ever changing world, but teaching others specific ways to create a healthy planet.