Citizen 110: A Sustainable Lancer: Reshaping Cultural Norms for Sustainable Living
I took Citizen 110 with Dr. Ellis during my fall semester in 2018. This class was the first one that I had where we did more than only take notes. In fact, we rarely took extensive notes because the class was more discussion based, whether that be in class or online. Even though I was not always at the center of the discussion, I did learn a lot more from this class than I anticipated going in.
Before this class, I did not know much about sustainability or what that really meant. I use a reusable water bottle and try my best to recycle, but that was about the extent of my sustainable practices. In this course, we did not only learn about sustainability, but we also focused on sustainability on Longwood’s campus, allowing me to learn more about our school and see parts of our school that I most likely would never have in my four years here. For example, we talked about LEED certified buildings and which buildings on campus are already certified. For this, each group focused on a certain building and the class toured Upchurch to determine if this building could possibly be LEED certified and in what categories. Our class also got to tour the Biomass Heating Plant and learned how Longwood uses sawdust to provide heat and hot water for the campus.
One sustainable aspect of the campus that my group and I focused on in particular is composting. We currently compost in Dorrill Dining Hall where we have a pulper that grinds up the food scraps. Every day, these scraps are picked up by the grounds crew and then are mixed with various plant materials and allowed to decompose to become compost. Then, the compost is used around Longwood to help beautify the campus. While talking about composting, I was also able to learn how D-hall and the other dining locations that do not compost, like Chick-fil-a, work to prevent food waste. In all of these locations, the waste is measured and a record is kept stating how much of each item was used and left over. This allows the locations to plan for how much food they will need that day in order to prevent the locations from taking out an excess of food.
From this course, I learned a lot more about sustainability in general as well as on Longwood’s campus. One of my favorite things to do since taking this course is to share the facts that I have learned about Longwood’s sustainable practices. I love seeing the reactions of students and staff when they hear about some of these practices as many people are unaware of all of Longwood’s sustainable efforts. For example, I have talked about composting with some staff and students, including seniors, and none of them knew that composting was taking place in D-hall, but were excited to hear about this practice. This class has opened my eyes to everything that Longwood is already doing, as well as what it can be doing in the future and I am now more aware of sustainable efforts wherever I go.
Near the beginning of the course, we were put into small groups of about two or three students and were assigned a certain topic. The goal was for each group to become an expert on a certain topic, as we were spending a majority of the semester researching and working on a project about this topic. My partner and I researched composting, and as a part of this assignment, we created a fact sheet with some of the information that we learned. With the help of David Love, the Director of Landscape and Grounds/Sustainability, and Grant Avent, the Director of Longwood’s Dining Services, we were able to complete this fact sheet.
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