UNIVERSITY NEWS

MVSU STUDENT INSPIRES OTHERS THROUGH SUSTAINABILITY

California has one of the highest recycling rates in the nation, so it’s no surprise that senior environmental science major Ashley Watts, who grew up in the Los Angeles area, also grew up environmentally conscious.

Unlike many of us, however, Watts has been passionate about environmental issues since she was a child. When she found out about an environmental charter high school in Lawndale, Calif., she jumped at the opportunity to go.

“I’ve always been interested in the environment and living sustainably, so when my mom told me about the school I knew I wanted to apply to go there,” Watts said.

Watts’ commitment to environmentalism has not waned since she has come to Valley. Currently, she is the president of the Green Ambassadors’ Club, an organization that helps spread environmental awareness and encourages sustainability throughout campus. She has also helped organize volunteer efforts structured around environmentalism and has several years of experience helping facilitate Toyota’s Go Green initiatives on campus.

Her high school, Watts said, taught her many of the values she still holds about environmentalism, such as the importance of recycling to reduce waste, and why encouraging sustainable choices like using less water or riding your bike instead of driving are important steps toward creating a more environmentally sustainable culture.

The school also taught the history of environmentalism; specifically, it focused on how many of the environmental problems ailing society today, such as acid rain, smog, and polluted waterways, were born during the Industrial Revolution.

Here at Valley, Watts became involved with the university’s environmental efforts after Dr. Louis Hall nominated her to represent the university at a conference Toyota was sponsoring at North Carolina A&T. Hall found out about her high school and decided she was the right person to represent the MVSU. Before going to North Carolina, however, she met LaFecia Hoover, the coordinator for the university’s sustainability initiative.

After returning from the conference she began interning with Hoover and working with the Green Ambassadors. Through the MVSU Sustainability Initiative, Hoover manages the school’s recycling center, so Watts and the other ambassadors help spread awareness about Valley’s recycling options and other ways that students, faculty, and staff can conserve energy and reduce waste.

Recently, the Green Ambassadors organized a coffeehouse night where they invited members of the community to share their poetry and spoken word pieces. Although the poetry was not necessarily focused on the environment, Watts and the other ambassadors were able to inform the audience about sustainability in between readings.

Currently, the Green Ambassadors have four regular members - John Beverly, Jerresia Edwards, Cornelius Kelly, and Watts, the club president. Under Watts’ leadership, the ambassadors were critical to bringing students to the Toyota/Arbor Day Foundation commemoration. Watts spoke at the event, passed out t-shirts, and helped organize the volunteers so that they could aid Facilities Management in planting dozens of trees in front of the Child Development Center and throughout the eastern side of campus.

“Toyota comes about twice a year to promote sustainability awareness,” Watts said. “They’re trying to making Green cool – to get people excited about sustaining and using less of things.”

During Founder’s Week, the sustainability initiative and the Green Ambassadors celebrated Earth Day by cleaning out the greenhouse outside of the MCIS building. Facilities Management replaced broken windows and helped restore the facility to working condition.

Watts is set to finish her coursework this summer. She is thinking about graduate school, but may work for a year before going back. A fitness instructor, she figures she has a job she can fall back on if jobs in her major, environmental science, are lacking. She hopes to eventually work for the Occupational Safety Hazard Association (OSHA) as a safety director, but “hippie speaking,” she wants to inspire the black community to become more engaged with health and sustainability. She also wants to do something with environmentalism, but she isn’t sure what that will be. One thing was clear: she wants people to focus more on their own health and the health of the world around them.

Summarizing all these thoughts, she cried, “I want to be a humanitarian!”

Ashley Watts