koulouvardiscolloquium

[koulouvardiscolloquium]

Journal 6

[koulouvardiscolloquium]

ECHO journal

Echo Virtual Fieldtrip

            Echo stands for Educational Concerns for Hati Organization. The mission of ECHO was to initially help the people of Hati who were living in poor and harsh conditions. Poverty was affecting Haitians and still effects many people today. Roger Dugger, the founder of Echo, was very moved by this problem and set out to create an organization to try and fight this problem. Today ECHO has small farms and operations set up in over 190 countries around the world.

            After completing the virtual field trip, I found myself very surprised by the scale of operations that take place not only around the world, but right here in Florida. I learned a lot about sustainability throughout this trip. For starters there’s a lot of farmlands on the campus. Farming, when done correctly, is inherently sustainable and offers a lot to the surrounding community. I also learned that sustainability and resourcefulness go hand and hand, you really have to be willing to get creative to find sustainable solutions to modern problems. Organizations, like ECHO are important to the world for this reason, they offer a glimmer of hope to those dealing with seemingly impossible hurdles to overcome. Adaptive technology is using technology and altering it adapt. For example, taking a normal technology like farming, vertical farming is an altered form of regular farming. An example at ECHO would be keyhole gardening, allowing for farming when there’s limited space or people to utilize. Living fences were also around the campus, creating a natural barrier to separate path from grass. I think that I may use some of the tips that I learned in ECHO in my own life. Some of the special uses for products that I didn’t know could be utilized such as neem oil for getting rid of fleas.

            While I don’t have any experiencing gardening, I do have some experience being around plants. I have never had a personal garden and grew my own food but it’s something that I think would be very beneficial to myself and to others in the future. I think that I would be a lot less wasteful in general if I didn’t have a supermarket or grocery store to rely on for food. I don’t waste food, but I think if I found how hard it was to grow my own food, I would be less wasteful with other things in my life such as trash. I think the consciousness would carry over. Unfortunately, I think a majority of the foods consume aren’t always local and they have to be shipped from all across the country. While it is taxing on the environment its also taxing on the animals. I have tried in the past to buy meat from local markets, but the price is much higher than going to the store, this aspect makes it harder to be sustainable. I think it will be very challenging to start new gardening and growing my own food. It will take a lot of patience, trial, and error, but I believe it will be a necessity in the near future.

Works Cited

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g34483-d3292016-Reviews-or20-ECHO_Global_Farm_Tours-North_Fort_Myers_Florida.html

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g34483-d3292016-Reviews-or15-ECHO_Global_Farm_Tours-North_Fort_Myers_Florida.html

[koulouvardiscolloquium]

[koulouvardiscolloquium]

Journal 1 - IDS 3920

My name is Christopher Koulouvardis and I’m a senior at Florida Gulf Coast University. I am a marketing major and plan on graduating this December with my Bachelor of Science. Before the first two classes that we’ve had, I was under the impression that Colloquium was just another required class that students at FGCU had to take if they wanted to graduate. I just assumed it was another one of those things like how we need 40-80 service-learning hours to graduate but it’s much more. After listening to Professor Ndiang’ui, I have learned that there is quite a lot more importance to what Colloquium is and why it is important for young students from different background to take this class and hear its teachings. As a marketing major your focus really isn’t on sustainability through your coursework. If you are to practice sustainability, it’s because something outside of school has compelled you. Coming into this class I would say while I don’t always choose the most sustainable options, I try and be aware of all my decisions, to try and be a more responsible citizen. In general, and through the outside world, I have learned the threats of global warming and other potential dangerous that are caused by that and other ways in which we as humans can act better to help the planet.

            I would say that my pre-conceptions were pretty similar to those in my group, not all coming from environmental education or environmental science backgrounds, what we know is all very surface level and not a whole lot detailed. I think myself and my classmates expect to learn more about Southwest Florida, its unique and diverse ecosystem, and ways that we can respect it and learn to further preserve it. Right now, I do not feel there is a strong connection to the learnings with what I know now because I am not fully educated on most of the topics we will be covering. Again, my major hasn’t focused on many of these issues, so I haven’t always had the time to go out looking for this information and education. As of right now, two classes in, I feel like I’m on “level 1” out of 10, I hope to get to level 10 by the end of December.