Environmental Autobiography (PSP)

            My name is Jordan Pryce. I am a first year student at the University of British Columbia and I plan on pursuing a future in physical geography and sustainability. Ever since I was little, I have had an admiration for my physical environment. I have always loved the trees and the streams and creeks that flow peacefully over rocks. Ultimately, nature has had an instrumental influence on what I am passionate about.

            Although I have a strong personal interest in nature and on the way it works in harmony with humans, I have many role models that have shaped my passion and helped me understand our environment for its beauty, serenity and key role in our society. Both my parents work in environmental sectors. My father works for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations in Water Allocation. His job is to make sustainable water land use decisions. My mother works for the Nature Conservancy of Canada and she works to conserve and protect private land through the outright purchase, receipt of donated lands, or by placing conservation covenants on certain properties. Since 2008, she has worked to conserve 9250 acres of natural habitat for plants and animals. Through their work and passions, I have gained an appreciation for how our world is changing in terms of new technology and sustainable practices and that as humans we need to understand that to be forever fruitful we must attain a sustainable way of living. I also look up to Mark and Craig Kielburger who are the founders of Free the Children, an organization designed to end child labour. Through their work I have come to realize that anyone can make a difference in the global community and be a leader, even at a young age.

Leadership itself is a paramount concept in my life. It has led to the funneling of my interest into the vast field of sustainability. In high school, I was involved with many activities that allowed me to carry out my role as a leader. From the end of grade 10 to grade 12, I had been involved with Amnesty Global Awareness, a group that works to create awareness of poverty and social injustices in our school. Amnesty helped me establish my talents in organization and as a public speaker. I helped organize coffeehouse fundraisers which funded certain Amnesty initiatives such as our school’s orphanage in Vietnam. I also hosted these events as a master of ceremonies allowing me to publically reflect on the specific issue that was being fundraised for. I was also involved in Link Crew which is a program established by our school to provide guidance and interaction with new students transitioning from middle school to ensure their success. In Link Crew, I conducted team building activities with a small group of students giving them the opportunity to get to know one another. This builds trust and allows new students to adapt quickly into the high school system. Ultimately, this program increases the relationship between students and I am proud to say that I contributed to our positive school spirit. I also was involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters which is designed to give younger students who are falling through the cracks a mentor and a confidant that can relate to their experiences. Every week I went over to the middle school and met up with my ‘Little’ to help him with certain academic struggles he was going through at the time. Together, we came up with goals and strategies for the future. I was also a volunteer in my school leadership program. Over the course of 2 years I recorded over 200 hours of volunteer work. I undertook many activities such as picking up garbage on the beach or simply organizing school events such as setting up for an assembly or going door to door for 10,000 Tonight which is an annual food drive.

            Being a leader in my school has led to my open-mindedness as being an active advocate of environmental sustainability. In grade 12 I took a social justice course and instead of an exam at the end, our class had to come up with individual projects that related to an issue in our world that we could present to the class. Using my open-minded leadership skills and passion for the environment, I developed my own environmental initiative by creating a series of video journals that are focused on environmental and ecological sustainability. In the journals I focus on a particular issue that is locally and globally relevant and change my life to show that doing the little things does make a difference to reducing our environmental and ecological footprint. In one of the journals I created, I specifically tackle one of my biggest concerns: the Midway Island Crisis. I explained how the North Pacific Albatross, the world’s largest sea bird, is dying because of the increasing amount of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre, the location where all the ocean currents meet. The birds are eating the plastic, mistaking it for squid, their natural food, and regurgitating it to their young. Environmental atrocities like these are widespread throughout the world and need to be addressed.

            Through inspiration and leadership I hope to bring a sense of passion to Sustainability 101. I want to demonstrate to people that I do care and that I want to learn and make a significant difference in my local and global community. I also hope to obtain new knowledge of sustainability and gain a sense of logic that I can use to support arguments that I believe in. I am just another person who walks and talks, but I am driven, and I will actively participate in every aspect of the course and ultimately, be active in teaching and learning sustainability for the rest of my life.