Yesterday i finished up my data entry and analysis into Excel. Is still had a few cross-sections that were not entered yet. I also went through all my data and organized it according to downstream/upstream as some of my numbered cross-sections became skewed while in the field. I converted my numbers from survey feet to meters, and fixed all other problems. Next step is to start working on my poster and finalizing my research poster
New Graph
I participated in a poster session at the AAG Conference (American Association of Geographers) in San Francisco on March 31 to present my capstone research. Overall it was a great experience. At the conference I did some networking for possible job opportunities and masters programs. The conference also served as good practice to present my research as i will be presenting it again in may, at the sage student research conference.
Posted from Camarillo, California, United States.
We have been back from New Orleans for about two weeks now, and life has somehow returned to normal routines and busy schedules. However, taking the time to reflect on my experience in New Orleans reminds me how much 
I have grown from this trip. It’s one thing to learn about a place via photos and lectures, but to really learn about a place you have to go there, talk to the people, and experience the culture, history, politics, and landscape. New Orleans is really such a unique place, everything about it is different than what I am used to. Seeing the powerful Mississippi River, salt water eroded marshes, swamps, and Cypress trees made me appreciate
a new kind of ecosystem. Seeing coastal erosion and extreme wetland loss was very eye opening to me.
Spending time in the Woodland Conservancy reemphasized the importance of conservation. All of these realizations made me happy to be an environmental science major, and I am excited to take what I have learned in this program and apply it to helping important areas like New Orleans.
Building food gardens was also a very eye opening experience for me. Sometimes you take advantage of having easy access to food, but not everyone has that luxury. It was rewarding to be able to help build these gardens and take part in giving a community access to food that we normally take for granted.
Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better experience in New Orleans. Dr. Anderson really did an amazing job at teaching us about every aspect of New Orleans that you can think of. The most important thing I learned from this trip is to never stop asking why. I learned it is crucial to always stay engaged with what is happening in the world, and even though it may seem impossible, everyone can make a difference.
Posted from Camarillo, California, United States.
Taking a week to reflect
ect back on New Orleans has made me want to go back and do it all again. This was one of the best trips I have ever been on. It was definitely a cultural experience. Before going to NOLA, Dr. Anderson gave many presentations to prepare us. I always got a different image in my head of what New Orleans looked like. From the French Quarter to the Lower 9TH Ward and how hurricane Katrina destroyed many of the districts.
Everything about New Orleans was amazing. The one thing that stuck with me the most was the levee tour because we really got to experience how tragic Hurricane Katrina was. We started in the Lower 9th and walked right up to where the levee had broken. We stood in front of a big concrete wall. Imagining the water coming over that and breaking the levee seemed unreal. It was very emotional because in the lower 9th we still saw houses run down from 10 years ago. It looked as if it happened yesterday. We saw houses slowly being rebuilt. One thing that was very upsetting was learning about the flood insurance. It can take people years to start building because in some cases you have to find the original owners home paperwork. It was sad to imagine the struggles people are still having today.
After visiting the levee, we drove further into the lower 9th. I didn’t think it was possible to get flooding way back there. We stopped at an outdoor museum garden walk like thing that gave a storyline of Hurricane Katrina. Yet another emotional experience. At the garden walk there was a metal post and at the top there was a sign that showed the height of the flooding. It was around 6’5”. Next to it was an abandoned house. It was very depressing. There was a hold in the roof, a car seat in the house, and just a lot of junk shredded throughout.
This weekend I went to Santa Rosa Island for the last time to survey beaches and collect data for my capstone project. This weekend was forecasted for rain all day Saturday, and it was going to be tricky finding a way to get out to the far west end of the island that day, so I was nervous I wouldn’t be able to collect the last bit of data I needed for the seasonal comparison. But thanks to Robyn, we were able to get a truck on Friday afternoon and survey Arlington and Sandy Point on Friday instead of Saturday.
Robyn, Brice, Ryan, and I left the field station around 12:30 on Friday afternoon and headed straight to Arlington. Last time I surveyed Arlington in the fall it had the most debris out of any other island beach, and this time around it was still the worst in terms of marine debris but it also had more debris than it did in October. We found a thresher shark washed up on the beach as well with a satellite tracker on it. I am excited to call Monterey Bay Aquarium and see where this shark was before we found it.
After that we booked it to Sandy Point to survey the beach before dark. Unfortunately, a group of elephant seals hauled out in 
my first transect so we couldn’t survey the first transect. It was pretty sad to see them literally laying on top of trash, but stressed to me why it is so important to address the issue of marine debris. The second transect was just as littered as the first one we weren’t able to survey, and it was surprising to see a few of the same items 
I had found in the fall survey still there. I marked items that were too heavy to bring back in the fall with a zip tie, and many of them had not moved since October, which was interesting. After Sandy Point we hiked back up to the truck, and started the journey back to the field station. It was hard to walk away from that amazing sunset over San Miguel, but we also didn’t want to be stuck in the dark either. It was a super long day but equally as awesome.
Saturday was rainy, as expected, so I used the rainy day to work in the lab. I managed to process every piece 
of debris we picked up the day before. In total, there was more debris just from Arlington, and two transects of Sandy Point than there was from all the beaches (Arlington, Sandy Point, Cluster Point, and Skunk Point) during the fall surveys. Not a bad view to work in the lab with!
On Sunday, Ryan and I headed out to survey Skunk Point. Cause dropped us off in the morning and we hiked back after we surveyed the beach. This beach didn’t have much debris in comparison to the others, and we were able to finish it fairly quickly. The hike back was beautiful as well.
Overall, it was the perfect weekend to sum up the data collection for my capstone. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to one of my Sandy Point transects or to Cluster Point, but overall it was a very successful trip!
Posted from Camarillo, California, United States.
Well we have been home from our trip for about two weeks now and I find myself really missing New Orleans and its people. Although this trip was exhausting it was also incredibly rewarding. One takeaway from this trip is the increased experience in conducting real-world data collection in the field. Constantly cutting our way through thorny blackberry bushes at the Woodland Conservancy was tough but we were rewarded when we collected some useful data for Dr. Anderson, not to mention the occasional adorable armadillo sighting. It was fun and interesting to look at the ratio of native vs. invasive plants in this protected area. We quickly got the hang of plant identification which really got me in the habit of looking at every plant around me, everywhere I went. I remember when we were getting an orientation at one of the community gardens we volunteered for and as I looked around I noticed the two trees right above us were a water oak and a mulberry. I felt pretty proud of myself for recognizing plants outside the field work. Doing the work at Woodlands Conservancy really made me think about the major I have chosen and how happy I am to be pursuing a career where I can do this type of work for a living. I am very happy I chose environmental science for my major and I can’t wait to utilize my skills after graduation.
The community garden work was also very rewarding. I feel confident knowing all the hard work we put into these gardens are for a good cause. So many people in New Orleans do not have access to healthy food, or they can’t afford it. The gardens we worked on were created specifically for people with limited access to healthy food. Two of the gardens we worked on were already established so we just helped by pulling weeds, laying down mulch, and picking ripe food. However, we also spent an entire day creating an entire garden starting with just an empty plot. We spent hours tilling the land and picking out the grass from the turned soil just to prepare the plots for planting. Finally, after all that we planted over a dozen different veggies. It was a lot of hard work for all of us but in the end we built an entire garden for a man with a physical disability who never would have been able to do himself. Not only does he benefit from this food but so do his neighbors, all of which live in tiny mobile homes and do not have great access to food like this. All of our work gardening has really inspired me to look into gardening at my own house and study what plants grow best in what areas.
While the field and garden work were truly inspiring, experiencing the cultural side of New Orleans was just as impactful. Every time someone talks about New Orleans they talk about the food, music, celebrations, voodoo, etc. Before going, I knew all of those things were part of the culture, but I never would have truly understood them had I not spent time in New Orleans. Never have I been to a place with such a prevalent and rich culture. I don’t often visit places with such a long and remembered history. Our cultural experiences involved: shopping in a farmers market, then cooking Creole dishes with that food, listening to several local musicians, exploring French Quarter, and visiting a historical museum. It was so interesting learning about the history of the land and getting to talk to people who experienced one of the worst disasters of our time, hurricane Katrina. As we explored the city we saw more and more devastation caused by the hurricane from almost 10 years ago. It was insane how prevalent the storm still was to the land and the people. I am so grateful for the opportunity to go to New Orleans and help out the local community and study it from an environmental perspective. I really hope to visit again in the future and I wish much luck to the students who attend this trip in the future.
It’s been a couple weeks since the team returned from New Orleans, and for me personally, it’s given me some time to reflect on the entire trip. First and foremost, this trip hands down was the most rewarding trip I have ever been on. I cannot thank Dr. Anderson enough for giving me the opportunity to partake in such an incredible experience.
New Orleans is an incredible place, full of diversity, history, and culture. Having this unique blend which is made up of its’ people, music, and cuisine, New Orleans definitely won my heart. It was a trip that was over in the blink of an eye, and I think I can speak for the entire team in saying that we were sad to leave when it came time to head back to California.
Dr. Anderson did an incredible job in making sure we got a full taste of what New Orleans had to offer in everything we did. From our service-learning work; to the people we met; to the places we went, we were able to see all sides of NOLA, both the good and the bad.
I believe our blog does a fantastic job of showcasing the work we did, and the places we went, so I won’t go into super detail of everything we did. But I will say my most favorite aspect of the trip was the service-learning work we did. From our transects at the Woodland Conservancy, to our community gardens and farms at Capstone and Grow Dat, we were doing our part to help this amazing place and its’ people. Which was most rewarding for me.
Dr. Anderson (CSUCI), Dr. Huggins (UCLA), Dr. Lambrinos (OSU), and Dr. Patsch (CSUCI) were a phenomenal faculty team, which added to the overall experience of the trip. I cannot wait for the day when I can return to New Orleans, hopefully to continue working with these faculty members.
Here’s to a fantastic trip, full of many memories that’ll last a lifetime! NOLA 2016!
It all began with a box filled with PVC pipe, some dedicated AARR students from our B-WET-funded Crossing the Channel Mentoring Program at CSUCI and the very curious students of Robert J. Frank Intermediate School who participate in Ms. Meza’s Oceanography classes (4th and 7th period). For two weeks this past month, these students learned the history of unmanned underwater exploration through the use of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and how they are helpful in conducting scientific research in areas that are difficult or dangerous for scuba divers. This enriching information was presented to aid them in developing ideas for their own research with this technology.
Buoyancy, Center of Gravity and its effects on Stability were all the rage by the end of the first week. These amazing students broke up into teams and constructed the frame for their own ROV, discovered the physics involved with weight and flotation and started applying their knowledge to the construction. 
Everything was about Positive, Negative and Neutral buoyancy for the start of the second week. The students can be seen attaching flotation after they mounted their motors to their submersible vehicles.
Control and Operation created a little fun chaos. As seen in the video at the end it wasn’t long before they were up and running their vehicles. The students held a friendly timed competition that started by descending to a position in a quadrat and then manuevering their vehicles through two hula hoops suspended in water. They then navigating to a pole that simulated a pier pylon which they would face for a photo stop an then descend into a quadrat on each side of the pole. After the students completed these steps they returned to their starting quadrat. The top two teams will get to take their ROV to Santa Rosa Island and deploy them at the pier.
New Orleans will always have a place in my heart after this trip. This city is alive with music, culture and cuisine. But this trip showed me there was more to NOLA than Bourbon Street. Places like the lower 9th ward are still broken from hurricane Katrina. The levee tour displayed failures in the system that destroyed areas like the lower 9th. We toured the French Quarter and enjoyed the cuisine and music.
The woodland band transects were one of my favorite parts of this trip. Going through the elderberry and rad maple in search of invasive species was the primary goal of the transects. We did this to compare transects from previous years. We saw various flora and fauna between the woodland park and Jean Lafitte National Park from armadillos, snakes and alligators to willow oak and blackberry. The wildlife was impressive and intriguing to see, it is very different from Southern California’s ecosystems.
We got a chance to help the food desert situation in the more remote and underprivileged parts of Louisiana. Through out the trip we had three days to help do gardening for local gardens. We went to Capstone gardens and set up aquaponic systems. The next location we went to was Carols house set up a seasonal garden for the local community. After that we did gardening at Grow Dat a youth group farm to teach skills and leadership to its participants.
To the mother I once knew,
Thank-you for teaching me everything I know and then teaching me how to live without you. Mother-daughter relationships are meant to last a lifetime you said, but you have shown me that is a lie. It has been almost a year since you abandoned and disowned me, and I am proud to say that I have grown more this past year than in my entire life.
As a child you picked me up when I fell and cleaned my cuts, but now as I have grown older, you are the one who makes those cuts. You always told me that you would love me forever and that God would too. Mom you told me to love everyone and to accept everyone as they are, so then why can you not love your daughter as she is? You told me that every person is God’s creation and that he loves them all, so why do you tell me I am going to burn in Hell?
Mother, we both worked so hard through my high school years to get me to college and now you do not want any part of my accomplishments. You missed my high school graduation, my college orientation, move-in day, and every college experience I have had because of vengeance. Will it take you until my college graduation or medical school graduation to let go?
I am tired mother; I am so tired of having this continuous fight with you. I thought we had an understanding between us after all of those countless talks and bonding dates. I am so tired of getting rejected by you and having to beg you for love and attention, I am emotionally drained. Did you not get enough payback when you dropped all of my belongings in front of the school for everyone to see? You have deprived me of a family and then you wonder why I do not continue to reach out to you.
You have taught me to guard myself so much and to never depend on another person like I depended on you because they can leave you in an instant. At times it is even hard to be with the person I love because you have instilled the doubt of people abandoning me on a dime.
It is sad to think that I am not as positive and carefree as I used to be, for all the turmoil you have dragged me through mother. You made it so I had no one but you, I was forever locked in a cage, imprisoned by the mistrust you bestowed upon me. And when you shut me out and left me, I had no one to turn to, I looked for ways out of my situation like going to place not of here. You made me want to take my life because in that moment I felt that no one wanted me and that no one would miss me. Mother you were wrong for doing that to me, but I know you cannot help your selfish personality.
I am sorry that I could not be the person you wanted me to be mother, but I love who I love and I cannot help it.
Sincerely,
Your daughter Kayla Ann
Lesbian and gay adolescents face many extreme hardships, especially coming out to their family/ parents about their sexual orientation. Often times families are uneducated about homosexuality and are closed minded due to their religious beliefs and homophobia. Many youths and even adults continuously push off the thought of announcing their sexual prefaces to their parents, for fear of being disowned and a disappointment. How can we better prepare parents for the possibility of their child coming-out or prepare these teens for the hardships that come along with revealing themselves to their families? We face a chance of rejection every time we disclose our sexual preferences to a new person. Is it not bad enough that you have to do that with almost every person you meet? I at times have felt very scared because I have met a wonderful person and friend and it is terrifying that I have to tell them who I choose to love and that they might not accept that. Being lesbian is not WHO I am, but it is a part of who I am. Being disowned by my entire family and closest sibling because of who I choose to love is very difficult. For instance, if my own family does not accept me for who I am than who will because even my own mother does not.
The period of adolescence and teen years are already confusing and full of turmoil without adding the result of being gay to it. 10 to 12% of all youth are lesbian, gay, or bisexual (Sanders, 433). Surprisingly to most people adolescence realize that they are gay or lesbian at a young age, for instance around 12 or 13 years old (Sanders, 434). Oftentimes they take comfort in telling a specific family member or professional person they trust. This can lead to issues of their parents finding out from another person besides their son or daughter which only causes more turmoil within the family. When they become self aware of their homosexuality the second step is to develop resilient ways to a socially oppressive norm when disclosing their sexual preferences (Sanders, 434). With all of these aspects comes the danger of being identified as a gay teen, take Matthew Shepard who was an out of the closet young adult that lead him to being beaten unconscious and left to die at the age of 21 in 2000.
What does it mean to be gay? What are the hardships? In the 70s homosexuality was considered a mental illness, that was less than 50 years ago. The gay population as a whole is becoming more widely accepted with the teachings of tolerance and diversity, but there are still many difficulties that homosexual people are required to overcome. There are relatively accepted benefits within society which are lost to homosexual persons’, such as loss of friends due to sexual orientation, lose job security, prone to harassment, lose of legal protections that heterosexuals automatically have, and disowned by religion (Borhek, 126). These are just some of the aspects of life that homosexual people automatically surrender when they reveal their sexual identity. It has not occurred until recently that some states are legalizing gay marriage, for they see it as a constitutional right to marry whomever you choose. So yes society has gone from thinking homosexuality as a mental illness to legalizing marriage among them, but gay people still take on the heavy task of oppression. With this being said it is legitimate that adolescents fear the act of being known, for the result may be harmful to their family and the person’s financial, psychological, and home life.
The question that is on every gay or lesbians’ mind is “Should I tell my family and friends?”. Most teens put off exposing their true identity until they are young adults for specific reasons, “… to say nothing until he or she is old enough to be self-supporting and living in his or her own home” (Borhek, 124). In other words, these adolescents are afraid of being disowned by their family and becoming homeless resulting in jobs such as prostitution, so they wait until being completely independent. For those who do disclose their sexual orientation to their families at a young age, “… counseling can still be beneficial.” (Borhek, 124). Personally I received sole counseling from the state after my parents threw me out and it did not help my psychological status, without my family partaking in it.
The next question is how do the parents feel and why do they have negative reactions to their child coming out homosexual. Parents often feel a sense of shame and guilt for raising a “gay” child due to the values of society where that is not normal, so they feel as if they have failed in some way (Armesto, 147). For example, “… proneness to shame and proneness to guilt may lead to different ways of experiencing and handling interpersonal events such as a child disclosing his homosexuality.” (Armesto, 148). Since the parent feels shame upon themselves for doing something wrong they portray that as a negative connotation which causes their reaction to be negative towards their child’s sexuality. They also look upon cultural, religious, and personal ideals which conclude that being gay is a very difficult lifestyle with many obstacles. There are many support groups and information regarding the families of gay teens and the process of coming out. The one fact that is not stated in the research is that a parent should love their child unconditionally, no matter if they disagree with their personal choices.
Unfortunately, oppression is a great factor when regarding the gay community and more so specifically for adolescents. With that being said coming out to your family can be a life changing decision, but it is a responsibility to yourself to be truthful about who you are. Yes, parents might reject you and throw you out in the street, but as they say if there is a will there is a way. Coming out of the closet is a very scary thing, especially when you are required to do it with every person you meet. Most people do not recognize the obstruction of being gay, it entails that you are fearful for your life and the acceptance of those closest to you. So mother I end this with the hope that you have a better understanding of who I am and what your lack of acceptance does to me; I will cease to apologize for WHO I am.
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