Photography, Chemistry, Ecology, etc.

Each semester for the past one and a half years, my school, SUNY-ESF, has hosted a stream cleanup and water quality assessment project along waterways in the Syracuse-Chittenango area to help improve the health of the waterways and to educate students, via firsthand fieldwork, about how to accurately assess the quality of a stream or a river. At the same time, we try to help cleanup these waterways in an effort to improve overall water quality, health of the aquatic ecosystem, and the natural grandeur of the waterway by removing trash and debris.

Last year, I helped spearhead the first ever Adopt-A-Stream event hosted by SUNY-ESF and maintained the role as a member of the executive planning committee. It was an incredible opportunity that I was given, to work alongside new people and collaborate on such a substantial project. Aside from helping to plan the event, I helped remove debris and took film photographs with my old Asahi Pentax Spotmatic at one location along Chittenango Creek.

This year, instead of helping plan the event, I was appointed as one of the two photographers for the event. My position was not as high ranking as the previous year, but it was just as integral to the entire project. My friend Anthony and I were the two photographers for the Adopt-A-Stream event and we traveled from one location, where SUNY-ESF freshman and other student volunteers were working, to the next. We traveled with some friends who were initially supposed to be chauffeurs for the freshman, but were instead chauffeurs for Anthony and I. So the six of us traveled in a tiny, five seater Honda Fit all day from one location to the next. I won't say it wasn't cramped, but it wasn't anything to complain about either. We had a great time together, driving around and stopping by locations to shoot some photos.

Fortunately, the weather was magnificent and we were able to make it out to Chittenango and Pratts Falls. Chittenango Falls is a bit larger than Pratts Falls and while we were there, a small rainbow formed at the top of the falls due to the perfect homogenization of ultraviolet light and airborne dihydrogen monoxide. I was able to catch a few nice photos of the resultant and couldn’t have been happier with the day.

Dorm Room Gardening

One of the best things a college student can do to improve concentration, study habits, and social atmosphere is to furnish their room with an assortment of plants that would do well with minimal to moderate sun. During my freshman year of college, that's exactly what myself and many of my floor mates ended up doing in order to create a better atmosphere on our floor. Being students at an environmental science and forestry college with eight greenhouses on top of one of our buildings, it was a very easy to fill our floor lounge with plants to a point where it began looking like a greenhouse itself. That lounge contained bamboo, succulents, and other large plants that apparently thrive indoors. Visitors often compared it to a flourishing jungle, although it was far from that. It was a very pleasant place to be and study in though. Every other floor lounge in the residence hall was barren and lifeless compared to ours.

During the late portion of the spring semester, I started a bunch of my own vegetable seeds that I would transplant to my garden back home once summer vacation started. I must've had over fifty peat moss and terra-cotta pots full of soil that would soon become home to an array of nascent plants sitting on my window sill. I had peppers, bamboo, tomatoes, soybeans, basil, and the two jade plants and the coffee plant that I still have today. I cannot begin to describe how much more comfortable my room was, not only to me, but to everyone that visited my room. They were conversation starters from the beginning. People would come in to see how they were doing and, since my room was also a nursery for other peoples' plants, they would often tend to and water them. It was one of the best ways to encourage social interaction, especially at an environmental school. My dorm windowsill garden allowed my room to maintain an atmosphere that encourage learning, sharing, and friendships. We had dozens of study parties, social gatherings, and knowledgeable discussions in my room frequently and I think the plants helped to harbor such activities.

Before I left for school for my freshman year, a neighbor of mine back home told me I'd probably have a miserable time because of troubles adjusting to a new location, higher level classes, huge assignments, and a new social atmosphere. Thanks to my openness, my friendliness, and my desire to meet and interact with new people, that wasn't the case. My plants helped me create bonds with my floor mates based on a common interest. Creating a dorm windowsill garden was one of the best things I think I've ever done. This year (my last year in dorm housing!), I have started yet another dorm windowsill garden containing poppy flowers, my jade plants, and my coffee plant and for the next 22 days (until I leave for home on May 6th) you can see how it's doing on my Folia page. Of course, after that those plants will just be moved to my "Backyard Garden" where you can continue to check up on them, if you're interested.