Before coming to Canada, i thought that trees just provide oxygen to the environment. In addition, I haven’t even realized the natural disasters it can occur from inappropriate human activities. As i am now in Canada, I have enrolled in biology and chemistry courses during my degree. Therefore, it allowed me to become a more environmentally-conscious resident in Canada. As years have passed, I was able to obtain the skills, attitudes and discipline needed to make a more sustainable world in the laboratory environment as well as the different negative climate change impacts that have occurred in Canada. In this reflective essay, I will mention how the biology and chemistry courses as well as the places I worked before taught me so much about environmental sustainability and how I can use it in the future.
In my first year of studies at TRU, I registered for a course called Principles of Biology I. Overall, the course mentions the life of living matter in the environment. It showed the cell theory, gene theory, the evolutionary theory which entailed the process of natural selection. In addition, cellular processes were used in particular organisms and the environment as well. Although there was a lot of vocabulary to study, the course gave me a big map of where these cellular microorganisms are located in the environment and what they do to living organisms. This course made me learn their mechanism of attack and how they live under natural selection.
Recently, I had the chance to enroll in a course from Open Learning called Environmental Science: Environmental Sustainability. As I went through the course, it made me open my eyes so deeply. It was very impressive for me to see a lot of different terms that are involved in Environmental Sustainability. Therefore, that part made me discover and learn a new world just by looking at those terms. In addition, I was able to share some discussions about different ways of saving environmental footprints by daily human activities. Also, I was able to efficiently use different Greenhouse gas emission tools online to measure an estimated value of total GHG emissions per year. In the end, I was involved in the most exciting part of the whole course: a research project. I decided to research about Solid and Organic Waste Management. I had the time to elaborate a reflective summary about all the possible factors that waste management withholds in Kamloops. Honestly, that was quite a lot of fun to think about that. I enjoyed the very end of the project in which I differentiated the different waste management action plans from countries around the world. The most beautiful part that I learned was that most of the action plans are relatively the same. Therefore, that means that stakeholders just need a small effort per individual to make a big impact in this world.
On a side note, I had the opportunity to travel and work abroad in the lands of Canada. This time, I went all over the east, predominantly in the province of Manitoba. I obtained a job offer at an agricultural company in which i was involved in a lab team doing biological, chemical and microbiological tasks in developing experimental samples of diverse microorganisms. It was very exciting to see the results after a week or so and observe how the bacteria grow and how the organisms develop themselves in the sample. I learned so many skills in that workplace which I missed a lot my lab team and the location I traveled to overall for such an amazing work experience.
Lastly, I have to say that it was honestly worth the investment in appreciating and learning the world of environmental sustainability. As a future graduate student, I already feel obligated and responsible to make positive environmental impacts on the world to live more sustainably and to take care of this world as humanely as possible.