Hayley White
College: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Major: Biology (BS)
Minor: Chemistry and Social and Economic Justice
Program Abroad: Center for Global Education at Augsburg College
Location: Namibia and South Africa
Language Goal: The official language in Namibia is English, but Afrikaans is also very common. I don't know Afrikaans and will try to pick some of it up while I am in the region.
Why you want a Green Passport: I already have a blue (it's Navy, really) and I value diversity!
The program I'll be on is named "Nation Building, Globalization, and Decolonizing the Mind." I will be taking courses on Racism and Resistance in southern Africa and the U.S., Political and Social Change in Southern Africa, and the Development Process in Southern Africa. In addition, I will hopefully be participating in an internship with a local community agency in one of a variety of areas, such as health care, AIDS education, media relations, or women's advocacy. The 20 of us in the program will also get the chance to travel around southern Africa, meet with political and social figures, and stay with families in both rural and urban parts of Namibia. I also hear that we get to climb the second highest sand dune in the world, so that is exciting.
I think it is easy to justify our use and abuse of the Earth, even if through minor acts, as necessary for our progress and convenience. This is especially true when traveling in a new place for a short time, where our environmental impact there seems almost trivial. I want to push myself to be more conscious of my impact now so that "going green" will become "being green" and, wherever my life drives me, it will more naturally involve service to both humankind and the environment that bears us.
One time, while standing in a relative's back yard, lightning struck a large tree nearby, causing it to crash to the ground. Young, scared, and apparently feeling guilty, I turned toward my family (now beckoning me out of the storm), and screamed, "I didn't do it!"
A few years later I became a Junior Ranger at a local nature park but, since that young age, I have to admit that I have not been active in any environmental causes of note. I claim to be much more socially responsible than environmentally so, participating in projects like Habitat for Humanity, Relay for Life, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and an alternative Spring Break trip in Atlanta to study hunger and homelessness. I also lend much of my time to Doctors Care, a clinic for the medically underserved in South Metro Denver.
A goal of mine is to see everyone in the world have access to clean water and quality health care by the year 2020. A girl can dream, right?
I have always enjoyed a good Dan Quayle quote: "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."