“Travel with a Purpose”

One of the main things I hear about our country with the economy being bad is the fact that so many people are deciding to go to college or join volunteer organizations like the Peace Corps. And of course the reason is because there are not a lot of jobs out there and if you are done with college, you most likely won’t have to start paying loans back. But there are so many other organizations where people can volunteer and not necessarily do it for two years. Ever hear of International Student Volunteers?

This past summer I spent a month, having the time of my life in The Land of the Long White Cloud, New Zealand. And the reason I went was because I heard about this awesome program called ISV, where you  “travel with a purpose.” Basically, they send you to countries across the world to volunteer at either conservation projects or community development projects. Thousands of student apply and thousands go and do their work all throughout the year. After two weeks of volunteering, ISV sends students on a two-week adventure tour of the country they were volunteering in to immerse themselves in the culture. It really is a spectacular program.

I mention this because this Saturday I headed to Rochester for an ISV Rep Conference. They have been holding these small conferences all across the U.S. over the past few months, where local ISV alumni (representatives really) gather together to discuss ways in order to encourage other students to make the commitment to volunteering overseas. And if making a month long time commitment is too much, students can just do the two volunteer weeks. And if that is still too long, I just found out they are collecting donations on their website that will go directly to the Red Cross efforts in Haiti. Another Kudos!

Days 2 at COP15

So after some amazing opening speeches at the welcoming ceremony, the conference is continuing to be an amazing experience. Tuesday was my day for poll management, which basically meant that i tallied up the results from the previous day’s question and display it at our booth with these awesome boxes that we created before we left. After the job was done, I took the time to look at all the booths that are here. Ok, so I didn’t get to all of them, but by the time I got to about half, my arms were filled with free items and pamphlets so I had no choice but to be done.

Afterward, a group of us headed over to one of the side events about Brazil’s use of biofuels. It was a really interesting session, mostly because believe it or not, I have never really been a big believer in them (biofuels that is, I believe in Brazil). My immediate thoughts when it comes to biofuels is about the land use. If all of this land is being used for crop that is going directly into vehicles, then we must be cutting forests or rainforests down in the process. Not only that, but if we are growing these crops solely for biofuels, well that is just tons upon tons of food that is not going to the people. There are millions of people in our nations today who suffer from hunger, malnutrition, etc. If they aren’t getting any food, why is the extra amount that is being grown not going there. My final concern with it is that agriculture is energy intensive. So although the creation of biofuels is done in the effort to reduce vehicle emissions, the energy that goes into the growing process has its own issues.

However, upon coming into the meeting I, of course, recieved free things, like a tote-bag filled with literature about biofuel use in Brazil. What I didn’t expect to receive, but did, was a pamphlet on biofuel myths. And sure enough, all of my concerns were addressed. That doesn’t mean that now all of my concerns are gone and I love biofuels, but it just makes me want to research more about them to create a balanced opinion on it. (After all, I am a journalism major.) The one question that kind of came up for me after reading the myth book that was not addressed was the fact that intense use of monoculture, like what would be done for growing biofuel crop, sucks nutrients from the land at a higher rate than if one was using permaculture, resulting in a degraded and agriculture useless land. If that happens, biofuel crop areas would move form place to place, degrading land. This is just a speculation. Makes sense though.

After the biofuels, I got a pretty rare and exciting opportunity from my professor, Susan Allen-Gil. At an evening reception Monday, my professor started chatting with this woman randomly who ended up being on of the advisers of the New Zealand delegation! Anyone who knows me knows that since my month-long trip there this past summer, I have been obsessed with the country and excited when the name is ever even mentioned. While chatting it up with him, she dropped my name, how I went there, and wrote my semester paper on NZ! Thank you Susan! After the biofuel talk, I got the chance to meet him and one of the Maori (native) representatives from the delegation. It was pretty amazing. Needless to say, I got business cards and have a new assignment to send him my paper when I get home. Awesome.