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Danielle Majchrzak
IND 209 Service Learning
December 9, 2011
Reflection Essay
The service learning course has involved participation with both Daemen College
and the Buffalo community. My individual experiences include involvement at the
Daemen College Ecotrail, Environmental Summit, Pelion Garden at City Honors, and
Garden of Stewardship by the Sheehan Hospital. These events as well as outside
sources have a positive impact on the environment and taught many believers how to
make beneficial decisions for the future.
Daemen College is committed to environmental ideas and actions. I have
supported this commitment by working with my classmates on the Ecotrail and at the
Environmental Summit. The work on the Ecotrail includes cleaning up garbage or
glass, raking leaves, adding to the compost pile, and hanging up vinyl signs at the
entrances of the trail. I also moved tree logs and stones in order to indicate exactly
where the trail leads. As a class, we also created ideas about building benches,
creating a living wall for the compost pile, and making the entrances more distinct.
More ideas include providing informational research about the nature of the trail and
creating a safe, artistic bridge for people to walk across the creek instead of stones.
The Ecotrail is now an educational place for people to gather in small study groups or a
relaxing environment to learn about nature. The work at Daemen College’s
Environmental Summit includes setting up tables for presenters and recycling
electronics. I helped carry computers, monitors, keyboards, VCR players, and cell
phones from people’s cars in order to put them in the recycling boxes. However, I was
surprised to find that people were recycling new products such as Mac computers or
brand new printers. It is necessary to recycle these products because there are many
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rare materials found in these products that we can reuse. Also, it is harmful for us to
throw out these products because they are put into a landfill and the chemicals from the
waste products pollute the Earth.
Through the two Daemen College events, I have learned that everyone can
impact the Earth or make a difference by participating in environmental behaviors.
People can perform energy efficient practices and decrease the amount of demand of
materials or reuse the materials needed. People can recycle materials such as paper,
cans, plastic, or metals and they can also reuse materials such as clothing or wood.
They can donate clothes to others who may be less fortunate or they may be able to
use spare wood in order to build benches or tables. Working at these two events taught
me how to work with others and how teamwork has a successful impact to inspire
individuals to make a difference in the environment. In order to be a successful team,
you have to take into account others’ ideas and help each other.
Individuals throughout the campus community enjoyed the response to
environmental issues and the class projects. The presenters at the Environmental
Summit kept thanking students for their help to set up their tables and supplies. Also,
others felt that the Ecotrail was a good idea to have at the campus and took a tour on
the trail in order to experience the environmental commitment of the college. The only
additional environmental issue that should be included in the college’s environmental
commitment is global warming. We should inspire individuals to deal with this concern
by incorporating it in the service learning course and inspiring other individuals to
participate in actions that limit the impact of global warming. These actions include less
travelling, or using public transportation when possible, and leaving a smaller carbon
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footprint. This can be possible by buying from local markets and growing personal
crops or gardens.
The Pelion Garden at City Honors and the Garden of Stewardship, by the
Sheehan Hospital, both have a positive impact on the surrounding environment by
providing crops or a place to relax. These places inspire the members of the
surrounding environment to also contribute to environmental friendly practices such as
recycling, creating gardens, or decreasing their carbon footprint. I learned that the
surrounding communities are very different from the community that I was raised in.
These communities need help because some people have low incomes or they need
help changing their existing behaviors that may have a negative impact on society.
Also, the abandoned areas in these communities need to be attended to. Therefore,
changes are needed in order to avoid the negative impact abandoned areas have on
society, such as an increase of crime rate. Crimes include vandalism, drug dealing, and
gang gathering. The crimes, as well as unsupportive members of the community, are
challenges of the Groundwork of Buffalo that needed to be overcome in order to
maintain these gardens. People had to be spoken to in order to change their minds if
they didn’t like the idea of creating a place for people to gather to relax at this location.
However, they eventually realized that the gardens have more of a positive impact on
the community than a negative impact. The activities of both of these gardens impacted
the community by inspiring others to be environmentally friendly, providing a space for
schools to educate a group of students, and providing crops for nearby citizens, such as
members of the hospital. The garden near the Sheehan Hospital also saves the
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hospital money on buying food and decreases the amount of time or distance in order to
obtain food.
My experiences at both of these gardens through the Groundwork of Buffalo
taught me how to cultivate crops and how to plant flowers, strawberries, or trees. I also
learned that a large group of people can make a large impact on the future. These
gardens inspire others to create their own gardens and maintain their own crops. This
will affect environmental issues that I have learned such as the carbon footprint. Less
carbon is given off since there is less transportation needed in order to obtain these
nearby goods or attend a place to meet up with others. Since both of these gardens
have a positive impact on the community, the Groundwork of Buffalo is using a good
approach in order to make the environment a better place. The current plans of the
maintenance of the Groundwork of Buffalo are appropriate and should be continued in
order to spread to other locations. This will include other communities to be impacted
and will be spread throughout the area. Since supplies or money will be needed in
order to maintain each of these locations, there should be donations of these materials.
For an example, people can donate money, garden tools, or building supplies at
benefits or functions that promote benefiting societies. The products can be stored in
an area where a shed can keep all of the donated supplies throughout Buffalo. There
should be multiple sheds in different locations since volunteers in different communities
will be using these materials.
From my experiences, in order to be happy, people in communities need food,
shelter, friends or families, a stable job, a good education, businesses, and
infrastructure. These requirements should be in a safe community without crime. The
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factors that influence crime rate include distance between structures, the availability of
drugs or weapons, and open, abandoned areas. Therefore, ideas in order to avoid
crime include close buildings and no abandoned areas. People should be able to ride
their bicycles, which would also decrease pollution. They can ride their bicycles to a
library, museum, school, or store. The abandoned areas should be turned into parks or
small gardens. This wouldn’t cost a lot for the budget of the community because
workers can volunteer to create these gardens or parks.
The Daemen College Campus community and the East Side communities, where
the gardens were located, were similar because citizens worked together in order to
achieve the same goal of saving the environment and recycling places, products, or
materials. Shared challenges of these two communities include finding useful ways to
utilize resources or materials as opposed to throwing them away. The resources can be
from dumpster diving, or donated, and can be used to construct signs, benches, or
fences. Another challenge includes finding affordable ways for people to change their
lifestyles in order to conserve energy or have a positive impact on society. Lifestyle
behaviors may change by the citizen using energy efficient appliances, public
transportation, or consuming less unnecessary materials. The community can become
more aware of these environmental ideas by attending classes about ways to conserve
energy. In order to make sure that everyone is educated about this topic, a short class
should be taken before entering a college or new workplace. Therefore, everyone will
be updated with new ecological ideas and information that will benefit the future.
People should be cautious of the environmental issues and economic issues that
conflict because beneficial, future actions for the environment may have a negative
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impact on businesses. I have agreed with this statement for a long time, so my
perception has not changed over the semester. For an example, if a person decreases
their carbon footprint, they may not be traveling or driving their own cars as much. This
has a negative impact on the gas stations and car dealerships because they are not
making profitable business. Since the person is not driving to stores as much and
consuming fewer products that are not really needed, these stores or businesses are
not profiting either. Lastly, the person may be buying their food products from local
markets, which also has a negative effect on larger businesses or corporations.
Outside sources influences others about environmental friendly ideas as well as
experiences. For an example, videos can inspire people to change their behaviors.
“Food Inc.” shockingly explains where our food actually comes from and how many
miles products actually travel in order to reach the destination. There are many foods
that are not healthy because they contain pesticides or chemicals used throughout
processing. Therefore, organic foods from local markets are the best way to reduce
transportation and obtaining healthy foods while supporting our very own community.
This is also explained by an 11 year old, Birke Baehr, on a Ted Talk video. He
mentioned that people do not realize where their food actually comes from due to
persuasive marketing strategies that overlook this information. Ted Talks explain how
living conditions or lifestyles can be changed in order to have a positive ecological
impact on the community. For an example, Bill Gates is thinking of better ways to use
energy in order to avoid catastrophes, such as global warming or deforestation. Small
actions will lead to a greater impact for the future generations of our society.
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My experience has changed the likelihood that I will volunteer in the
community in the future because now that I realize everyone can make a difference, I
want to volunteer more often. I emotionally feel better about myself as I contribute to
the society because I enjoy participating and trying to make the community more
environmentally friendly. I feel that I am more aware of environmental issues due to this
course and I understand more about the issues. Therefore, I plan to try to change my
own behaviors, as well as my family’s behaviors, in order to conserve energy. I plan on
creating my own garden at our house as well as buying less unnecessary products,
which will save materials. We will recycle as many materials as we can and try to
influence others to make a difference in the community as well.
Experiences at the Daemen College Ecotrail, Environmental Summit, Pelion
Garden at City Honors, and Garden of Stewardship by the Sheehan Hospital as well as
outside sources, or videos, have a positive impact on the environment and people’s
beneficial decisions for the future. Over the course of the semester, this service
learning course taught me to become more aware of the environmental issues that are
taking place every day. By becoming aware of these issues, learning how to approach
them, and educating others about the issues, the world will become a cleaner and safer
place to live in. The future of this planet will be benefited by encouraging individuals to
make little changes within their lifestyles.
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Works Cited
Food, Inc.. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Eric Schlosser. Magnolia Home Entertainment,
2009. Film.
"TED | Talks | List." TED: Ideas worth spreading. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2011.
<http://www.ted.com/talks>.