Student from Hartland, WI<\/span> <\/p>\n “Everyone likes to talk about the \u201cdoom and gloom\u201d parts of society such as poverty, hunger and pollution. These problems are easy to highlight, but I\u2019ve always found Environmental Club to be a positive way to address social issues instead of just talking about them.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Jay Nelson doesn\u2019t look like the Hollywood stereotype of an environmentalist. There\u2019s no dreadlocks, no tie-dye, no hemp jewelry. With his easy smile and charming demeanor, he looks like an average college student at WSU. But when we visited the Greenhouse, his eyes lit up and he excitedly pointed out the little green shoots of squash, beans and tomatoes sprouting in their soil beds\u2014just as you would expect from the leader of the Environmental Club. As we talked, Jay radiated positivity and optimism about where his degrees in public administration and political science, and his passion for sustainability will take him after graduation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What do you do in Environmental Club?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been involved in the club since my sophomore year when I declared a sustainability minor and went to all the events and just tried to help out in any way I could. I was elected president of the club my junior year. Now I do all the planning for club meetings and events and finalize our club goals for the year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What is your favorite part about Environmental Club? It\u2019s been really cool to see my friends and peers getting involved in projects that we\u2019ve decided are important\u2014not just to the University but to the community too. That\u2019s been really fun to see everybody getting excited about taking part in these projects that we all feel will make the world a better place. It really gives me a sense of purpose and meaning to what I\u2019m doing in my life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What attracted you to this club? Everyone likes to talk about the \u201cdoom and gloom\u201d parts of society such as poverty, hunger and pollution. These problems that are easy to highlight, but I\u2019ve always found Environmental Club to be a positive way to address social issues instead of just talking about them. There are a lot of ways\u2014for example for our Greenhouse Project and obviously projects like it on a larger scale\u2014 you can grow food anywhere, even in urban areas. By setting up an urban farm, you can provide food to people without access to healthy food sources, jobs for people who want to operate a greenhouse, cut down on food waste by utilizing compost systems, and reduce pollution from greenhouse gases produced by large-scale farming. To me, it\u2019s an answer to so many different problems and that has become clear over the past few years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Can you tell me more about the Greenhouse Project? The Greenhouse is my proudest achievement so far. A year ago it was a pretty desolate space\u2014just some boxes, garbage cans and random facilities equipment was stored there\u2014and we\u2019ve been able to transform it into this cool place where there\u2019s plants growing and everyone can come take part and learn about growing food or flowers. And you don\u2019t have to be an expert on soil levels or agriculture in order to grow a plant. I\u2019m no expert on growing things, but a year ago my roommates and I experimented growing food in our yard. Our landlord built us a planter and we planted flowers, kale, tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuce, radishes and cabbage. It all went really well and all we did was stick seeds in the ground and water them.
\n Public Administration and Political Science majors, Spanish and Sustainability minors<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
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\nIt just takes trial and error and not being afraid to fail because you learn as you go. The Greenhouse is place for others to try that experiment too, and learn about sustainable agriculture in the process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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