Reflection: Weeks 9-12

I can't believe there's just a few short weeks left this semester. This class really seems like it's been flying by. Here's a quick recap of the past 4 weeks and what I've taken away from it all:

Week 9: This week we all learned about how to make SMART goals. If a goal is SMART that means it is Specific,  Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. We all made some great SMART goals, and I think this was an excellent way for us to apply the things we've learned in class to our everyday lives. This week we also learned about Advocacy and took the first step in getting involved by searching for and posting our political representatives.


Week 10: In week 10 we really got started on our Advocacy Projects. We all chose an issue that we cared about from Healthy People and searched for related legislation on the topic. The issue I chose involved reducing overall cancer rates (new cases) in the United States. We also watched the video Unnatural Causes  in class and learned how to do an issue overview, which involves considering all aspects of an issue, who it affects, what the impact is, etc. We also kept up to date on our eco-chic lifestyle change/ SMART goals, and posted about our progress.


Week 11: This week in class we watched the short video The Story of Stuff. I think this has been my favorite movie we've watched yet because of the way it addressed consumerism and it really made a lot of big complex ideas seem very simple and easy to understand. We also posted our issue overviews related to our Healthy People objectives, which I found to be a great learning experience. Being able to read the organized overviews of everyone's different topics was a great way to break down the information so we could all easily see the impact, the people affected, and the importance of the issues.


Week 12: This week we all presented our photo essays on topics of our choice. I loved seeing everyone present their pictures in class and I thought a lot of people had really great stories to share. I also thought it was a really cool idea to assign a photo essay instead of a regular essay because sometimes seeing what people are talking about is much more helpful than words alone and it let us express our creativity. We also continued with our eco-chic lifestyle changes/ SMART goals and I think a lot of us are pretty proud at the progress we made in 4 weeks.

So, the past 4 weeks were a blur as usual, and I felt like I learned so much in such a short time. Still, I'm glad it's almost the end of the semester and I'm excited to apply everything I've learned...over winter break.

Share and voice: Peace Coffee

For this share and voice, I thought share a bit about Peace Coffee which I mentioned in class during the presentation of my photo essay.

Like I mentioned in class, peace coffee is pretty cool AND environmentally friendly. They have a variety of coffee and all of it is certified fair trade and organic. They are also a local company based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I think it's pretty cool that we serve this coffee here at the UMD coffee shop. It's an easy way to reduce your environmental impact, just by buying Peace Coffee!

Eco-chic Lifestyle Change: Week 4 Weekly update

I try to keep a supply of soymilk in my fridge so
my roommate and I don't drink or cook with milk.

This past week, I was surprisingly on track with my attempts at eco-chic lifestyle change. Despite all the mouth-watering dairy-laden Thanksgiving food, I was able to stick to my SMART guidelines.

Just a reminder of my SMART Goal: I will eat/drink no more than 1 serving of dairy (2 oz cheese, 1 cup milk, 1 yogurt, etc) twice a week. 

Considering that I was surrounded by dairy all weekend long, I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. I did have some difficulty resisting the urge to eat cheese (as usual) but I solved this by asking my friends and family to help me out. I learned that it's really helpful to have a few people looking out for me and supporting my efforts. 

I really want to keep up with the progress I've made this week, so I searched for some tips on eating dairy free. eHow.com had some pretty good info which I I think will be helpful these next couple of weeks.

Wish me luck!

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

For this eye-opener, I decided to document my coffee drinking habits and my shift from one behavior to another. All photos were taken by Yours Truly.

This is the coffee shop here at UMD. Although I occasionally make my own, this is where I tend to buy most of my coffee, especially if I'm in a hurry or really tired.

I like buying coffee from school because they sell Peace Coffee! For those of you who don't know, Peace Coffee sells only organic/fair trade coffee and operates out of Minneapolis MN. They even have people deliver coffee on bikes! Needless to say I feel good about supporting this brand. But I could still be a bit more eco-friendly with my coffee-drinking habits.

This is an example of a disposable cup I buy and then throw away (or recycle) each time I buy coffee at school. Although you'll notice the cup says it's eco-friendly, it would still be better not to use these at all.

I noticed the school has a great selection of reusable coffee mugs in the school store. This seemed like it could help me on my quest to be a more eco-friendly coffee drinker.

Here's my nice new (sort of dirty) reusable coffee mug! This way, I'm not generating all the waste I was before each time I drank coffee from a disposable cup. This was a very environmentally conscious choice, if I do say so myself.

Thanks for checking out my photo essay! I hope it was eye-opening and informative.