Congrats Jacob!

Hello Environment First Kids!

I hope you are all enjoying your well deserved winter break! I wanted to take the time to congratulate our new Co-President Jacob Jensen! I'm excited for a successful Spring semester! See you all in January!

Melody

VOTE for a new Co-President!

Hello E1-ers!

I hope you are all are thoroughly enjoying your study days! Included are the Co-President goals for Antonia Blumberg and Jacob Jensen. Please send an email back to USCenvironment1st@gmail.com with your vote for the position of Co-President by Friday, December 12th.

Also, attached are two potential designs for our free canvas bag giveaway during Earth Week. Please send us any feedback about the designs!

Antonia Blumberg:

Hello!

I haven't been able to make it to meetings this year, so I know I really have no right to run for Co-President, and I'm not really expecting it to happen. But I do want to get more involved next semester because environment issues are, in my opinion, the most important ones of our generation, and will probably be for our entire lifetimes. Some of the things I would like to work with everyone on:
1. Set up more recycling bins around campus (this should be easy, and they are significantly lacking)
2. Collaborate more with the departments, housing, hospitality, basically everyone we can to reduce paper use, increase recycling, initiate more environmental education (what can and cannot be recycled, eating lower on the food chain, no more plastic water bottles!, living with lower impact, composting)
3. On that note... maybe working on a large project to establish a compost pile somewhere on campus. It would be a huge effort, but if we all contributed it's very feasible
4. If composting is a no-go, maybe an small organic garden? I know a lot of universities and schools do it; It would be awesome if we could grow food and then have a little picnic at the end of the year or next semester when things have grown
5. I haven't been here during Earth day, but I think we should do a big celebration for it out at Tommy Trojan... food, t-shirts or pins, posters, someone in a tree suit giving free hugs? yessss
6. This may be far fetched, but it would be awesome if we could get a celebrity to come and talk about their involvement in environmental activism. I know Sheryl Crow has done a lot, and Woody Harrelson (sp?)

Anyways, "they may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." I these are ambitious goals, but they are extremely important to me and I think it would be wonderful if we could accomplish even one of them next semester. I'm really hoping the meetings work with my schedule next semester, and if they don't I may just have to change my schedule!
Thanks for taking the time to read this long email!

Antonia Blumberg

Jacob Jensen:

Hey all, you probably don't know me but I was E1's philanthropy chair in the previous semester. Currently, I'm travelling up the coast of Queensland in Australia after finishing my semester abroad. I'll (hopefully) be graduating in May with a BS in Electrical Engineering. So anyhow, as co president there is one major change I would like to see and that is more discussion of goals/methods. I think at this point we all know that what we do at the personal level can never "save" the environment, and that if civilization continues its current trends we may soon not have an envinronment to save. That isn't to say that being green isn't the morally right thing to do - or that what we do isn't worth it. In fact, what we do is very important. But obviously, we are all still actively participating in a system that is funadmentally flawed and is killing the planet. I think we can assume that the things we are doing to preseve the environement are not going to change the majority of Americans or the corporations who are doing 90% of the damage.

Yet we seldom talk about these things, we seldom discuss what I suppose you could call the philosophy of environmentalism. What I am suggesting is that we take part in some contemporary philosophy. In addition to planning out all our events and plantings we should also take part in discussions about how we would TRULY save the earth. I mean, what exactly would it take to dismantle harmful corporations and stop them from functioning in harmful ways? Should we place the needs of our personal careers and education above the needs of our landbase? I believe that this is really important stuff (maybe even the most important), but I just don't think enough people are talking about it.

Jacob Jensen

Thank you for a great semester and good luck on finals!! See you next semester!

- Melody and Maddie

design #1:


design #2:

I come with good news and with bad news... E-1 newsleaf!

Environment First meets Thursday @ 6:00PM in VKC 111... Be there! it's the last meeting of the semester.

______________________________
Environment First would like to congratulate our president Maddie Chavez on her graduation at the end of this semester. CONGRATULATIONS MADDIE!
This Thursday's meeting will be the last led by Maddie who has been a dedicated friend to the environment and our organization.
Thanks from all of us and the best of luck.
We'll miss you!

____________________________________
Melody Tsai, Co-President, melodyts@usc.edu
Maddie Chavez, Co-President, mfchavez@usc.edu

Hello E1-ers!

Our last meeting for the semester will be this Thursday, December 4th at 6PM in VKC111!!

As you know, our Co-President Maddie is graduating in December. :( If you are interested in being Co-President next semester, please send a short paragraph explaining your goals/reason why you are interested to USCenvironment1st@gmail.com by December 3rd. It's a lot of fun, and next semester we will be organizing Earth Week!!

Your Co-Presidents,
Melody and Maddie
__________________________________________________________________
Also, look out for
this great event coming up this week....

Proposition 8 – The Aftermath

Thursday, December 4 from 12 pm to 1 pm in Waite Phillips Hall (WPH) Room 403

Sponsored by the LGBT Resource Center Ally 'Safe Zone' Program.

Join this discussion about the legal implications of Proposition 8, a California ballot measure that amended the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. It passed by a slim margin in the last election. Tara L. Borelli, staff attorney for Lambda Legal and lecturer for the Gould School of Law, and Ange-Marie Hancock, associate professor in political science, will lead the discussion. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Thank you everyone for a great semester!
Good luck on finals and have a wonderful break!

Stay informed, stay active, be heard!

-Your Political Student Assembly
__________________________________________________________________
E1 Calendar Overview
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday: MEETING! 6PM in VKC111!!
Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:

--
Environment 1st
University of Southern California
http://uscenvironment1st.blogspot.com/
___________________________
USCenvironment1st@gmail.com