Betty Lee | Kristen Griffith/The Whetstone
By Betty Lee, The Whetstone
The first day I walked on to Wesley’s campus was the day I decided I would help bring recycling to Wesley. I told myself, “By the end of this year, Wesley will be green.â€
I admit, maybe I was a little naïve.
To make this happen I founded the environmental organization, Sustainable Wesley. I bribed my friends to attend meetings, and spent at least $100 out of pocket on doughnuts my freshman year since I was confused on how check request worked (yes, even after attending SGA meetings).
Going green is something everyone wants to achieve, right? I would like to believe so; however, Wesley made it clear early on in the process that my goal would be hard to achieve.
It took a year and a half for the bright blue recycling bins to be placed in every student’s room, every common area, and every office on campus. This was a huge achievement; the freshmen this year were greeted with recycling information during orientation and are (hopefully) using the bins in their rooms. Although the outcome was great, the year and a half of work to get the bins was grueling.
I can count using my hands the number of people who were helpful during this process, which included a select few faculty members willing and excited to help. I, an eager student with an initiative to make Wesley a better place, was greeted with hesitation and plenty of ignored emails.
Brooke Thompson, the vice president of Sustainable Wesley, spent her summer as an intern at Wesley. During this time, she performed a cost-benefit analysis of the recycling program. What she found was amazing.
The new recycling program is saving Wesley College $12,387 a year.
We are saving the school money. More importantly, we are helping to make Wesley more environmentally friendly.
I am not the only student to have initiatives on campus. Unfortunately, I am also not the only student to feel defeated. More often than not, students with big dreams are met with apprehension.
What if our community cared a little more? What if I had more than three faculty members spending a little extra time helping to make our community better? What if we went to a school where it didn’t take doughnuts to attend meetings, just people wanting to do good?
If people had cared a little harder, if people listened a little more, and if we all were a little kinder to each other, this campus could be brimming with improvements.
