SEA container gardening raises awareness

The Students for Environmental Action (SEA) hosted a Container Gardening Extravaganza. The event’s focus was on reusing materials to plant flowers, morning glory seeds in particular, in decorative pots. The event was held on the Freshman Quad on Wednesday afternoon. The SEA’s aim was to increase awareness of its cause.

Running alongside the Center for Social Concern’s Meet and Greet fair, the SEA drew in freshmen who were already on the quad to learn about community service opportunities on campus.

“Part of [today is] just instilling the fact that you can do awesome things with reused stuff, and it’s our way to reach out to freshmen who are here right now,” President of the SEA Nikita Singh said. “Baltimore’s got these really cool warehouses all over the city where they basically have reused building materials; it’s kind of like a Home Depot meets Goodwill.”

Singh and the rest of the SEA board members plan to host many events centered around environmentalism throughout the year. The SEA will soon host a volunteer canoeing trip in conjunction with non-profit organization Blue Water Baltimore, where students will pick up trash in and along the water while canoeing.

“[The exact date] is tentative now because they have to get back to us, but hopefully [it will be] in October, it will be soon, to kick off our unity,” Social Chair of the SEA Gavi Rawson said.

In the spring semester the organization is planning to hold a debate focused on the benefits and detriments of genetically modified organisms in the world’s food intake.

“It’s fun getting other people excited about it because I feel like it’s not something that gets a lot of attention,” Singh said. “It’s just fun to make everyone else as excited about it as I am.”

Although the SEA focuses many of its projects on a larger scale, the organization also focuses on campus action and improvement. The club serves to not only involve the student body but also create a difference with the platform that the University provides.

“A lot of people think that universities are just there for schooling, but they are also innovators,” SEA secretary Sirtaj Singh said. “Things that happen on campus make a huge impact on things that happen around the rest of the country and the world. It makes a big difference if a university with a huge name is doing things; it brings a lot of publicity to the problem.”

The organization’s  board members aimed to make sure that the focus and interaction on campus stayed a key principle of the club. The club values student outreach as well as internal programming.

“It’s not just in Baltimore and not just in the globe but also here at Hopkins. We have a lot of initiatives; we do things like this where we’re just getting outreach and showing people how easy it is to garden in your own room,” SEA Vice President Maggie Weese said.

Weese said she was most proud of the organization’s wide outreach.

“We get involved in environmental work and policy throughout the globe, which is kind of exciting that we don’t just limit ourselves to Hopkins,” Weese said. “We also do a lot of awesome work here. We get students involved in stuff that’s going on in Baltimore — like this year we’re going to be going to farmers markets and checking out urban farms and gardens in the city.”

Although the organization’s initiatives often deal with complex issues, the board members stressed that students without prior experience or knowledge are welcome to join. Part of the club’s mission is to educate students on issues vital to environmental science and activism.

“In our meetings we have a little education session teaching [members about environmental] topics. People come with no knowledge, and throughout the year we’ve got people working together in smaller groups, so you get to know each other and more about the environment and people [that] help move you along,” Rawson said.

Rawson, a sophomore who is primarily in charge of the club’s publicity, community outreach and internal human resources, said that he originally joined the organization to expand his knowledge and understanding of environmental issues.

“I was into being environmentally conscious, and I felt like I didn’t know enough about it, so I came to [SEA] and learned a lot,” Rawson said. “People were already so into saving the world, and I was way behind. But people were so friendly and enthusiastic that I kind of just stuck around and found my place.”