Service Learning Proposal

Name: Taylor Wade

Major: Marketing

College: Lutgert College of Business

Section:  CRN 80121

Date: September 10, 2015

Service Learning Venue: Saint Nicholas Monastery, 

Address: 1340 Piney Road North Fort Myers, FL 33903

Website: http://www.saintnicholasmonastery.org/

Contact: Mother Andrea: (239) 229-3871

Describe the activity.

At Saint Nicholas Monastery we will be helping them recover and beautify their eleven acre property. Mother Andrea, our contact with the monastery, told us that since we are nearing the end of the rainy season that their property is a mess. As a group we will help restore a piece of the land so that the area will be able to be used during the winter months. The areas that we will be cleaning up will be the future location of the Bible Herb Garden that the Saint Nicholas Monastery is planning to build. Also, she mentioned that we will have the opportunity to collect and process beeswax for their candle shop. From the way it sounds, Saint Nicholas Monastery is eager for volunteers to come and help them with their environmental needs, so they can meet the needs of their members.

Are you working in a group or alone?

I will be working with two other people from our class, Jeanie Verderese and Makenzie Hanle. We’ve had classes prior to Colloquium together, and we’ve all worked together well. Hopefully we will be able to make this project a great one to remember because we are able to do it as a group.

How does this fit into your schedule?

While we were trying to decide on the right venue for our group, we all decided that something close to campus would work best. Since we are all involved with an athletics team we have busy schedules already, so convenience is important to us. After corresponding with Mother Andrea from the Saint Nicholas Monastery, she told us that she would be very flexible with the days and times that we are able to volunteer. This was a huge deciding factor when narrowing down our possible service learning venues. She said it was up to us how we complete the hours, all in one day or spread out over several days which is what she recommended.

How will the service benefit the organization you serve?

The Saint Nicholas Monastery is a place specifically organized for women to go to help find their “sense of place.” It is stated on their website that they are trying to transform the eleven acres they own into “a place of splendor and spiritual retreat.” I think Mother Andrea sounded very excited to hear that a group of college students wanted to volunteer for her, so we are hoping we will be able to help her achieve her goals of beatifying their property while we are trying to meet our goals of learning more about the environment and sustainability.

Will this service enrich your understanding of the material covered in this class? How?

Yes, I definitely think this service learning opportunity will help enrich my understanding of the material covered in University Colloquium. Personally, I don’t have much experience working with and around the natural environment. I grew up playing sports and being active outdoors, but I never really thought about sustainability and preserving the natural environment. With the activities we are doing, I will be exposed to the ecological systems in our local area, and I will be helping to restore them to their natural states. Since it is nearing the end of the wet season, I will be able to observe some possible issues that are associated with our local ecosystems. I think this is also a great example of commitment to community because we are able to support a local group in our area reach their own objectives. Completing these tasks with fellow class members will also provide a great avenue to build community within the classroom and hopefully extend what we are going to learn to our fellow peers.

https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/shutterstock_192712649-620x414.jpg

Nature Deficit Disorder

“The brain is strong and flexible, so 70 to 80 percent of kids adapt fairly well.” (Louv 5)

This quote seems reasonable for today’s society. Yes, times have changed. Technology is taking over the modern world, but there is still a way to function in it without being negatively affected. I was born midway through 1995, and one of my greatest memories as a child was playing outside with all of the neighborhood kids. Whether it was summer, winter break, or after school, we all spent hours together outside playing sports and other games. We were able to use our imagination when we made up own games. This is what we grew up doing, and this is what our brain was programmed to know. Technology was around, but my parents let us use it in moderation only. We had to pick only a couple favorite shows to watch during the week, and time on the computer was monitored but not restricted. I think a balance was struck that helped me adapt to the changing world, yet I was still able to be a true kid and play outdoors.

“Value and care for trees in your community. Caring for trees means caring for people.” (Louv 9)

http://www.brandywinecounseling.org/events/2013-trauma-conference

While I think it is important to care for trees and other parts of nature, I don’t think you should be able to compare it to caring for people. I think Louv may have taken it to an extreme when he said, “caring for trees means caring for people.” Yes, both are living things in our world, but besides that I do not see a correlation between the two. As humans, I think you must have a desire to care for something or to do anything for that matter, but the desire to do one thing doesn’t automatically lead to a desire to do another. There must be a conscious decision that you make yourself. 

“They found that greenery in a child’s everyday environment, even views of green through a window, specifically reduces attention-deficit symptoms.” (Louv 8)

http://suryawrites.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html

After reading the entire excerpt, I was under the impression that going out and being a part of nature is what helped children with ADHD or ADD. It seemed like Louv was stating that personal interaction in natural outdoor spaces reduced some symptoms the children were experiencing. This particular quote though says that even a view of greenery through a window will help the children suffering with these diseases. I am just unclear about how seeing trees, grass, and shrubbery through a window will make a difference if you never get to physically experience the natural world.

Biophilia vs. Biophobia

“Whatever is in our genes, then, the affinity for life is now a choice we must make.” (Orr 187)

This statement is one of the truest statements I’ve read. Not only does it apply to how you live with nature, but it also applies to how you go about all other aspects of your life. Every day we wake up and decide how we are going to spend our time. It is a choice we make by taking into consideration what will benefit ourselves and the others around us.  I had to look up the definition of affinity to really grasp what was being said in this sentence, but the part of the definition that stood out to me was “the natural liking for something or someone.” So no matter what genes you are made up of, what we once had a natural liking for must now be a conscious decision that we make. The affinity for biophilia, which once came natural to humans, must now be a mindful decision that we as individuals must make.

http://www.strangenotions.com/two-paths/

“But crossing this divide first required us to discard the belief that the world was alive and worthy of respect.” (Orr 189)

This statement makes it sound like all is lost of the nature in our world today. Yes, there are some areas that may have been taken to the extreme, but to me a lot of it is how the modern world is revolutionizing the way it goes about daily life. I do not think today’s society has completely lost all sense of respect and worth of the environment. As times keep changing, I think it is near impossible for humans to continue living an unaltered life. Generations are changing, along with research, technology, medicine and other areas of life. Just because times differ does not mean we have lost all respect that we have for our natural environment.

http://www.modernhdwallpaper.com/archives/8746.html

“We should worry a good bit less about whether our progeny will be able to compete as a “world-class workforce” and a great deal more about whether they will know how to live life sustainably on the earth.” (Orr 206)

I understand that this idea is saying we need to make children more aware of the natural world and sustainability, but with the world we live in today that is not how they will survive and thrive. I guess I am wondering how we strike a balance between the two extremes. Our culture has moved further away from complete biophilia, but it is also developing in a new way. We are not aiming for biophobia, but as new technologies and ideas emerge, why not take advantage of them to the fullest extent. Maybe some common ground needs to be found, but what is unclear to me is how we will reach that solution.

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/oct/20/teaching-children-programme-code-technology-creativity