Blog Entry #12

                                                                                     Colloquium

To tell you the truth, I was so nervous before I entered this classroom. This was my first honor’s course and on top of that it was one of the first courses that signified I was a junior. Everyone on campus knows that you are almost done with your college years at FGCU when you have taken colloquium. Well that’s the way I think about this course when I think about FGCU.  Everyone knew each other in the course because they entered the honors program together and I was just inducted to the program a few months before the course started.

I felt relaxed when we were given the first task and this task could be completed without working in groups. The big question was, what do you think colloquium is. At first I automatically wrote down service learning. As the course progressed, I quickly realized that it is not just about service learning. It is about conserving our environment and learning ways to live a sustainable life without taking drastic measures. The course emphasized what is happening to our environment in our community as well as what is happening to the environment in other parts of the world. Basically this course is about awareness and using the knowledge that we learned to take action.

I have learned so much in a short amount of time and that is incredible to reflect on. I have had the opportunity to explore parts of Fort Myers that I would have never ventured on my own. I probably would have never seen downtown Fort Myers or ECHO or any of the other places we toured on field trips if I was not in this course. This class has opened my eyes and helped me understand our environment and community as something bigger than my regular studies. 

Blog Entry #11

                                   Edison Who?

There was so much information that I learned from the downtown Fort Myers field trip. Before arriving downtown, I learned that the Edison name used for most buildings in Fort Myers is named after Thomas Edison who lived in Fort Myers and at the time he was the most famous man in the world. I have lived in Fort Myers for almost two years now and I am ashamed that I didn’t know that Thomas Edison was a contributing factor in this city. Now that I know a piece of history of Fort Myers, moving forward in the field trip looked promising.

            It is sad to admit as well that I have never been to downtown Fort Myers until my junior year of college. This experience was truly one of a kind; I have always enjoyed history and the historical museum was a treat. Our historian and tour guide Jim took us through a timeline that started with Paleolithic times, into the Seminole wars and then the present. The modeled artifacts that are displayed all over the wall helped me visualize what times would be like back then. The historical museum of southwest Florida will be a place that I would like to take my family too.

            Since this was the last field trip of the semester I was sort of sad because there was a lot of information that I never heard about Fort Myers and the environment until recently. I could not even imagine if this course was offered for a whole year; how much information I would gain from this course. A neat part of this field trip was walking through the downtown area with our classmates and seeing what kind of shops there are. There were so many eateries, the place I enjoyed the most was the downtown pizza shop. As the field trip was ending and we were heading back to the shuttle, I was thinking to myself how much I learned from this course and all of knowledge that I have gained.

Blog Entry#10

                                          "Wonder Trails"

I thought the Echo field trip was interesting but I was wrong. The campus hike which was our “on campus field trip” definitely topped every other one. I won’t lie I was scared to walk through the nature preserve because the grass was very high. I know that may sound dumb but I was terrified my skin would have an allergic reaction to the itchy grass. Other than that seeing the other student’s reaction to the nature preserve was too funny. I think once everyone got passed the fact that we were going to walk through a lot of tall grass, the field trip was even better.

            There was so much to learn from snails to an assorted array of wild flowers. I liked that the nature preserve had so many different areas to walk through. At one point when we finished walking through the tall grass we were in a forest area. It is amazing how fast the zones changed. It felt as if we were at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, it is nice to experience that again on campus.

            Memorable moments from the on-campus fieldtrip were the paths of the nature walk. I thought that there was one narrow and straight path that goes through the nature preserve. There are so many adventures that could happen depending on what path you take.  When the nature walk ended I missed the shade that was given from the trees. It was peaceful in the preserve compared to the sidewalks of the school. If I have more free time, I would definitely go out there again and enjoy what nature has to bring.

Blog Entry #9

                             Nature Reads
Reading the excerpt from The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise by Michael Grunwald was interesting. I know that politics play a major role in our everyday lives but to see how much it could affect nature was astonishing. I just couldn’t believe that when situations got serious, certain people who are in control would not step up and take charge. A good part that came out of all this was that in the end people were able to get bills passed.

            Reading The Nature of the Everglades by Marjory Stoneman Douglas was really difficult to get through. I like the fact that she is very passionate about nature and concerned about the everglades but it was also difficult grasping each sentence. One part that I especially like from the reading from Mrs. Stoneman was about the meaning of “hatchee”. I am from Loxahatchee, Florida and I found out the word hatchee means river. I live on a dirt road and on the corner of 3 canals. This made me feel connected to the everglades somewhat more.

            If I had to choose which reading was more interesting, I would definitely say that Michael Grunwald’s story was more intriguing. Reading about politics is actually very interesting because the events that happen are historical. The decisions that we make now will affect what life will be like in the future.  Whether it is was Marjory or Michael the stories were interesting but I would say that Michael’s writing was more compelling.