Introduction By Grace Di Cecco, Service-Learning Teacher Assistant
This spring, freshman honors students in Professor Sarah Finn’s First-Year Writing course “Science, Technology, and Human Values” have participated in Service-Learning by joining on-campus activist groups that relate to course themes of science, technology, and human values. Their service work has informed their learning in the course as we explore how writing can be used for activism and enacting change, and they have joined vibrant communities on campus by getting involved with issues they are passionate about. Below, students share the causes they have dedicated themselves to and reflect on their experiences so far. This is the fifth post that kicks off a series of six about First-Year students serving Northeastern through Activism. Stay tuned for more posts!
Husky Environmental Action Team
By Service-Learning Students Hailey Konisky, Taylor Trail, Addison Feldman
Pictured above: Professor Sarah Finn, Hailey Konisky, Taylor Trail, Addison Feldman
This semester, we joined the Husky Environmental Action Team (HEAT), an activist group supporting carbon neutrality on Northeastern University’s campus. We focus on student outreach and making small changes that have a larger additive impact. Over the past few months, we have worked with the group to eliminate the sale of single-use plastic water bottles and increase renewable energy on campus. We helped write the referenda reflecting these two causes for the Student Government Association and campaigned to collect signatures to put them on the spring ballot. This semester the group also continued their community service activities, including picking up garbage and shoveling snow in the Fenway community. We also participated in the Women’s March and plan to attend the March for Science this coming Earth Day.
Joining HEAT was closely connected to the focus of our Service-Learning course, which was Science, Technology, and Human Values. We were able to incorporate HEAT’s core values and causes into our writing assignments throughout the semester. We investigated problems such as climate change’s impact on food security, the bumble bee decline, and awareness and acceptance of global warming in several genres of writing for the class. Being a part of a student activist group greatly enhanced our sense of community on campus and showed us firsthand that individuals can truly make a difference.
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