Reflection: Weeks 9-12

With only a couple of weeks left in this semester (I cant believe this) here is a recap of the last 4 weeks throughout our journey in Environmental Health.

Week 9: I completed an advocacy project identifying all of my political representatives ranging from the president, to state and local legislature, and even my hometown mayor.  We then discussed the meaning of advocacy and participated in an exercise with the whole class.  The final portion of class was devoted to developing our own personal Eco-chic lifestyle change that we will be monitoring and reporting on for the remainder for the semester and developed a SMART Goal for this change.

Week 10: This week began with an assignment identifying a particular bill that interested us and doing a bit of research of on it as part of our advocacy project.  We then watched a video titled "Unnatural Causes" and described the bill we had chosen to the class.  To round out class we discusses a what entailed a photo essay as an intro to an upcoming assignment.  Finally we had our first weekly update on our Eco-chic lifestyle change, mine being that I will eat at least 4 servings (1/2 cup) of fruits or vegetables (or a mix) every day for the next 10 weeks.

Week 11: We once again had another advocacy project due, this time we did an issue overview of our bill and how it impacts different populations and different types of people.  In class we watched a video called "Story of Stuff" and discussed our upcoming junking projects.  To round out this week we had another weekly update on our lifestyle goal due, where we once again monitored our progress of attaining our goal.

Week 12: To begin class this week we each presented our photo essays briefly to the class and discussed   our reasons for doing them, we then were introduced to Blog Hops and how they work.  We then discussed how to communicate with decision makers and the media.  Also we lead in to our letter & fact sheet assignment for our advocacy project due the following week.  To finish up this week we posted another weekly update on our lifestyle change and discussed our next class meeting at Goodwill.

With only a couple weeks left in this semester I can't believe the amount I have leaned, I can't wait to see what is to come in these next few weeks and I am looking forward to my junking project.