Over the past school year, I was able to be a mentee to Kevin Smith from Keep Forsyth County Beautiful. It has been full of new adventures, laughter, and learning. I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity to be in the Honor's Mentorship Program.
In all honesty, when I found out that I wasn't going to be interning at an environment engineering firm, I was somewhat disappointed. Everyone else I talked to within the Honors Mentorship Program was able to have a mentor in their desires career field, and it was discouraging that there wasn't someone out there like that for me. However, within twenty minutes of meeting my mentor, I knew that this wasn't going to be the case. Mr. Smith was in fact the perfect fit for me as my mentor. He introduced me to a world that I didn't even know had existed prior. I learned so much, from how to educate young students to be citizen scientists, to how people in the working world should go about their lives to truly enjoy it. He showed me that learning is something that can be fun and interactive, while still being incredibly applicable for my future. Something that I believe helped me the most to obtain the most from my experiences was definitely maintaining a positive attitude. No matter how bad of a day I was having, I knew that as soon as I would set out on my weekly adventure with Mr. Smith, that I was going to have a good time. Sure, there were days that I didn't really want to go. But as soon as I got my hands dirty collecting bugs in the river with elementary kids, or as soon as I began to tour the water treatment facility, my mood changed. Mr. Smith opened my eyes into the world of positive thinking, and that work most certainly doesn't have to have a dull moment! Being an environmental engineer is something that is equally as hands-on as being an environmental, community outreach specialist, and learning all about the efforts people put in to educate and better the community is right up my alley. Environmental Engineering is not just about designing and creating structures to help maintain waste or improve environmental health, it's about reaching out and educating those within the community to ensure that everyone can live a safe, clean life. As for you future Honors Mentorship students, I have one piece of advice for you all: Make the most out of every situation. Life is short, high school is short, and more importantly, a year in the program is very short. While it may seem like a lot of work juggling classwork, assignments, and a mentorship, geting hands-on experiences this early in life is beyond helpful. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to be selected for this program, and you should be too. Outside of Forsyth County, opportunities like this don't exists as frequently. Make sure not to take anything for granted! Even if you don't feel like going to your mentorship one day, I promise you, if you go in with the belief that you will gain something beneficial out of the day, you will have an amazing time.
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Over the course of this past school year, I, Caraline O'Donnell, have had the opportunity to be a mentee to Mr. Smith, the head of community outreach for Keep Forsyth County Beautiful at the Forsyth County Recycling and Solid Waste Department. Throughout this mentorship, I began researching a subsection of environmental engineering that I will encounter as I enter the workforce after graduating college. This research revolved around a United States Green Building Council (USGBC) initiative, the Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED). After determining what I wanted to delve into, I developed an essential question, which was "How do LEED Assessments advocate for the construction of environmentally-friendly buildings?" Data was gathered to answer this question via the Galileo Virtual Library and local sources, such as the project manager for a LEED Certified building in the county, Mr. Pate. The goal of this data collection was to determine how LEED promotes sustainability and eco-friendliness in communities throughout the United States, particularly my community in Forsyth County.
Following the collection of data, everything was organized in a way that allowed me to see the bigger picture of how important LEED truly is to communities. After reading an article about the benefits of LEED homes and buildings in Kentucky suburb, I found out that, not only do LEED buildings average less than ten years for the payback period of construction costs, but the overall communal carbon footprint is reduced. Knowing that LEED has the potential to do both of these things if implemented within communities allows me to come to the conclusion that it is necessary to design and construct more LEED certified buildings if we want to create a path towards a sustainable future for generations to come. Disclaimer: I do not excel at public speaking. I lost my ability to speak comfortably in crowds somewhere between sixth grade and ninth grade, and have struggled to rebound from the dip in my public speaking skills. With my relevant presentation scheduled for next week, I find myself growing anxious at the thought of speaking to twenty engineering students about my capstone. Even though they're students just like me, I can't help but worry about what may happen if I make a mistake, accidentally stumble, or for whatever reason, can't answer a question a member of the audience asks me. I know for a fact that as soon as I step up in front of the class that I will wind up with a red face and clammy hands.
The video above called, "Be a More Confident Public Speaker," by WatchWellCast, provides helpful tips for succeeding in the public speaking realm. They utilize something known as the "triple-p method." This method goes as follows: 1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare Knowing what you're supposed to talk about is INCREDIBLY important when it comes to public speaking! You can't search things up on Google in the middle of a presentation like you can if you were writing an essay. After knowing exactly what you'll be presenting, it's good to have an idea of the timeline of when you'll present everything. If you're presenting from a PowerPoint, knowing what slide comes after the one you're currently talking about is CRUCIAL. While it's good to have the PowerPoint as a backup if you can't remember what to talk about, you don't want to be clinging to every slide for the information. 2. Posture and Physicality In order to keep confidence at its maximum strength, it's good to know what to do with your body while you're standing in front of an audience. By having a good posture, you are able to be more relaxed, comfortable, and at ease than if you were slouching on stage. Also ensuring that you're well hydrated keeps your mouth from becoming dry from nervousness. 3. Pander to Your Audience This step basically says that you shouldn't be too much of anything while on stage - don't be too serious, don't read too much off of your index cards, and don't be too comedic (unless of course, you're on stage to tell jokes!). Don't be afraid to tell a lighthearted joke if it fits the bill. By ensuring that you focus on being as natural as possible, the audience will be drawn towards what you have to say as opposed to looking somewhere else. I think for me, preparation is key. If I am able to plan everything out to the last detail, I know that I will feel less anxious going into the presentation. This weekend, I have intentions on writing down my main talking points on index cards, and running through my PowerPoint to ensure that I don't forget any important information when I go up to speak on Tuesday. Since practice makes perfect, I also plan to run through my presentation a couple of times in front of different audiences. First, I'll start off with my family members, then move on to an audience composed of my friends, and finally, practicing in front of my physics class during our study hall time (with my teacher's permission, of course). Being able to smoothly get out all of my information prior to the actual presentation takes off quite a bit of stress for me. As I head into next week, I know that, by utilizing some of the tips from the video, I can succeed at a higher level than I originally thought I could. While there is still anxiety present about speaking in front of an audience, I know that if I stay focused, I can definitely accomplish what I'm setting out to do: teach students about LEED Assessments. (P.S. - Here's a link to a nifty worksheet that may help you get your thoughts organized before going to speak in front of people.) Biblography:
Sandoval, Pavel, and Aseem Prakash. "The Gold Rush: The Popularity of the Gold Tier in Leed Certification." Environmental Policy & Governance 26.6 (2016): 543-55. Galileo Virtual Library. University System of Georgia, Winter 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2018. Summary: The majority of this article focuses on the background information to allow for readers to understand why the study was conducted. According to the statistics on the amount of LEED certified buildings, there are more Gold tier certified buildings than there are platinum, silver, and certified. The history of the LEED program, how certifications are met, and the overview of how contractors profit from LEED investments is explained in great depth over the first five pages. Following this background information, the data of the study is presented and analyzed. For the study, 144 owners and managers of LEED buildings from 27 states and Washington D.C. were interviewed anonymously on their reasons for choosing the LEED level they did for their buildings. The results were astounding. The reasoning behind so many Gold tier certified buildings has to do with the gap of required points between Gold and Platinum certification. There is a gap of 20 points between the two, whereas there are only 10 between the rest. Following the results of the interviews, a cost-benefit analysis is taken into consideration for the reasoning behind Gold versus Platinum certification. A small conclusion wraps up the entirety of the article, and provides readers with a summarized look of the entire study, answering the questions presented in the introduction. Potential Quotes: “LEED certification is the most prominent voluntary environmental program for built environments,” (Abstract, 543). “These programs will attract firms because environmental stewardship is profitable, and are therefore crucial examples of communitarian modes of regulation,” (Introduction, 544). “Successful tiering [in LEED] requires a certain level of sophistication on the part of the buyers/renters of properties,” (The LEED Program, 545). “LEED can be viewed as a multi-stakeholder club that reflects the views of builders, architects, and the construction industry as well as environmental advocacy organizations on how buildings should seek to reduce their environmental impacts,” (The LEED Program, 546). “LEED buildings attain a given tier once they achieve a minimum number of points based on their ‘credit activities,’” (The LEED Program, 546). “The issue of return on investment, in particular, was quite important [to the LEED certification process],” (Program Design and the Tiered System, 550). “Gold [certification] benefits from the economies of scale from the projects that are applicable to almost all buildings such as water efficient landscaping. Achieving Platinum is cost-prohibiting because you have to invest in projects that are particular to that specific building,” (Program Design and the Tiered System, 550). “Given that an investment in Gold [tiering] tends to pay off, Gold becomes the preferred tier and favors the lower tiers,” (Path Dependency and Prior Experience, 552). Assessment: This source comes from the Environmental Policy and Governance Journal which is written by highly-accredited professors and engineers who specialize in environmentally-friendly, sustainable structures. Both authors are from the department of political science at the Center for Environmental Politics at the University of Washington, and have spent years studying and teaching. Within their article, numerous footnotes are present with the detailed information as to where they found the specific data that they researched outside of the study, as well as a references page at the end, allowing for readers to further delve into this topic. Reflection: I plan to use this article to explain what each of the LEED certification levels mean and the requirements needed for each tier. Alongside this, I have the ability to back up the statistics as to why certain certification levels are more popular than others, and the factor that contribute to the strange percentages of Gold versus Platinum certifications. Having this extra knowledge about LEED popularity levels allows me to gain a better understanding of the spread of eco-friendly buildings and the intensity that each level requires from the building owner(s) or renter(s) as they operate inside of it. You're probably wondering what frog pipes and salamander planks have to do with my mentorship experience, and that's completely understandable. However, my mentorship has everything TO DO with frog pipes and salamander planks! Last Tuesday, my mentor and I went out to Whitlow Elementary and set up twelve research stations for the science department. These research stations, made up of one tube and one plank each, will allow students to monitor and track the frogs and salamanders in the area. These pipes and planks gives students the opportunity to be a part of Keep America Beautiful's Frog Monitoring Program! All of the data they collect will be used to keep track of overall environmental health in the county and the state of Georgia, and determine if there's anything that needs to be done to rehabilitate the environment and ensure that everything is continuously safe.
"Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em 'Certainly I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it." This quote speaks a lot to me...especially right now with how busy I am! I am currently working towards finishing my capstone project. While it is due at the end of March, there is a lot that needs to be done! As a result, I have now just begun to work towards completing it.
As of right now, I have completed two out of the three annotated bibliographies I have to do, and my goal is to wrap up the research portion of my capstone this week by completing the third. I now have a more than basic understanding of what LEED truly is, so my final source is going to be something related to the positive effects it has on the environment or the community. After I finish my final annotated bibliography, I am going to work on an outline of how my relative group presentation is going to go. I have the intentions on presenting my project to one of the second-year engineering classes at school. That way, as they work on designing structures and homes, they can use the knowledge about LEED gained by my presentation for their coursework. My engineering teacher at school is very excited for me to present my work when it is complete. I don't have much in regards to what the presentation will look like, but I am probably going to make a PowerPoint and an infographic to go along with it. It is looking to be a very productive, eventful week for me! Bibliography:
Glossner, Stephen J., Sanjeev Adhikari, and Hans Chapman. "Assessing the Cost of Effectiveness of LEED Certified Homes in Kentucky." Journal of Technology Studies 41.1 (2015): 10-19. Galileo Virtual Library. University System of Georgia, 1 Mar. 2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2018. Summary: As the United States continues to develop, owning a home has gradually become more and more expensive over the last decade. In response to this, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Initiative (LEED). This allows for eco-friendly buildings to receive merit for utilizing cost-effective materials that put a lesser strain on the environment than typical buildings normally do. As a result, engineers from the Journal of Technology Studies took part in a study that assessed the overall cost effectiveness of eco-friendly, LEED certified homes within several homes in Kentucky. Over the course of about ten years, they took into account the payback rate and average, monthly utility bills. The results proved that LEED certified homes, on average, save more money in the long run even if the initial cost is slightly more than with average home construction. Potential Quotes: “In 2010, the United States consumed…19% of the world’s energy for that year. Of that 19%, 81% came from fossil fuels alone,” (Page 10, Introduction). “Since 2000, the LEED program has been at the forefront of sustainability in the commercial industry,” (Page 10, Introduction). “A significant finding…[in the data]…is that all four counties the LEED Certified level had a payback period between 19 and 21 years,” (Page 16, Payback and Mortgage Analysis). “[In 2007] there were 392 certified residential homes, while in the last recorded year, 2013, there were 17,000 residential units were certified.” (Page 10, Introduction). “Findings from this study show that when the total building cost per square foot of the LEED certified banks were compared with the eight non-LEED certified banks, they were within the square footage costs for all ten banks,” (Page 11, Brief History of LEED). “The study found that the costs of the LEED Certified Level to be minimal; the average of the median values was just under $5,500 for all four counties,” (Page 17, Recommendations). “It is suggested that the banking industry provide lower interest rates on mortgage loans to those building LEED-certified homes,” (Page 18, Recommendations). “According to the USBGC, LEED for home projects, on average, are 20% to 30% more efficient than a typical residential project built to code,” (Page 13, Cost Effectiveness of LEED Certified Homes). Assessment: This source is comes from the Journal of Technology Studies, which is written by professors from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. All three of the authors are knowledgeable in the world of eco-friendly architecture and the impact that it has on the community. Alongside the findings of their research, there are sources to back up their statements and facts. All of the chosen sources for the article come from credible sites as well, including the USGBC and the Database of State Incentives for Renewable and Efficiency. Reflection: I plan to use this source to back up the benefits of LEED and why it hasn’t been as widespread as it could be. While this study was conducted in Kentucky, it still is beneficial to see how, once LEED is implemented, it spreads throughout a community. With LEED Certification comes a lot of decreased costs in regards to utility bills and upkeep. Having data from the study within the article allows me to show how LEED affects every day people in positive ways. This article provides insight into how LEED has impacted several communities in a variety of ways, and can continue to assert my reasoning behind why it is such an important thing to have. Part of my capstone project requires having a completed annotated bibliography submitted at the end of the research process. This week, I am beginning to compile my information by selecting an article that would be beneficial to my research and analyzing it. I filled out a graphic organizer (shown below) that details what I learned and read about. The article I chose was "Assessing the Cost Effectiveness of LEED Certified Homes in Kentucky." Below is my annotated bibliography graphic organizer that I completed as a part of analyzing the source.
My capstone, which deals with LEED Assessments, is now just taking off. While I have a lot of information in check, I now need to begin organizing the data and ensuring that I fully answer my essential question (to see more in regards to this, see this post).
My research is being driven by the fact that I am genuinely curious about delving into an important aspect of my future career. LEED Assessments are something that will guide me into designing new, innovative, eco-friendly structures and devices to handle our ever-changing world and (hopefully) diminish the population's carbon footprint. Doing this research will not only help me get a better understanding of how I can make a difference in the world, but also how I can educate the public on ways to help improve the environment's quality. The essential question that I currently have is: "How do LEED Assessments advocate for the construction of environmentally-friendly buildings?" Since beginning this research project, I have not changed my essential question. After giving it a lot of thought, I decided that, in order to achieve the highest rate of success in my research, this question would be the best. It has allowed me to already gain a better understanding of how my capstone will turn out, even if I haven't totally finished completing my research portion. As of now, I envision my project to be presented using infographics that I will create by myself on Adobe Illustrator. After I print them out, I'll stick them on poster board and present them along with a model of some sort (demonstrating a few factors of eco-friendly options available to the public). The rest of the presenting will be delivered by me of course! I really want to improve upon my public speaking, and I think that interacting with people and answering their questions about LEED will definitely help this. For my real inquiry portion of my project, I plan on taking some of the knowledge learned through my interview with Mr. Pate and backtrack it through the community. I plan on visiting the Sawnee Mountain Preserve Visitors Center and the Post Road Library to see the LEED elements of each building in action, take pictures, and ask questions to the staff as I go along. By doing so, I can take the information I learned in my interview and connect it to what's actually going on. I am especially curious as to whether or not the staff members of the Post Road Library are aware of LEED, and I may wind up doing a bit of educating myself as I ask them their thoughts! In order to further work on my research project, I was tasked with asking a knowledgeable person questions that related to my essential question:
"How do LEED Assessments advocate for the construction of environmentally-friendly buildings?" In order to get background knowledge on the subject, I asked Mr. Pate, the project manager for the Sawnee Mountain Preserve Visitor Center who worked towards making sure that the building met LEED Codes. (Format as follows: The question I asked, Mr. Pate's response, then my reflection of the response) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. What are LEED Assessments? LEED assessments are used by project managers, architects or engineers to grade criteria when designing a sustainable or green building with the ultimate goal of having the US Green Building Council certify it as such. For Commercial Buildings LEED Certification is based on a point system in 6 main categories. Then, there are 4 levels a building can achieve...Certified,Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. I've had a little bit of experience using LEED Assessments through an architectural-based competition over the last few years, but I was unaware of the levels a building can achieve. Points from each category of the LEED Assessment are used to award the building based on how many total points it reaches at the end of the assessment. This allows for a greater flexibility in how a building can be labeled as "sustainable." While it has to have something from every category, it's okay if it the builder decided to focus on, say, the usage of rainwater for watering the turf and plants outside as opposed to focusing on using less water in public restrooms. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What is your experience with them? I had direct experience working with an an engineering firm and LEED AP (accredited professional) architects on a LEED certification design and designation for the Sawnee Mountain Preserve's Visitor Center back in 2007. It's crazy to think that just spending time with someone knowledgeable about the LEED world allows someone to learn so much about it! But then again, I believe the best way to learn is by watching someone do something, so I think gaining that experience through both your own motives and by being educated by someone knowledgeable impacts you for the better. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. How has your support of LEED impacted the community? When we started the visitor center project in 2007, I saw what was happening with rising energy and building costs and voiced my opinion that the county and parks department had the perfect opportunity, as a steward of the tax payers dollars, to be a role model in developing a sustainable energy efficient building using the USGBC's LEED model. My hope was its success would help spur others to make the same choice. I would like to think my work on the Sawnee Mountain Preserve's Visitor Center helped initiate the Forsyth County Library's development of their LEED certified building at Post Road. During the beginning of a project that has the potential to impact the community for the better, one may not wind up immediately seeing the results they set out to gain from doing such. However, I think that, as you advocated for the visitor center, people started noticing how energy-efficient buildings aren't just for "tree huggers." They benefit the community while still keeping the operating costs low, which allows for a longer amount of time to reach out and educate the public. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Other than the Sawnee Preserve Vistor Center, are there any other buildings within the state that you've worked to meet the LEED requirements? No, but I did have a bit of input in regards to the Post Road Library's Silver Certification through LEED. Personally, I think that this may have had to do with all of the time and effort put into both the physical design and constructing of the visitor center and trying to persuade county officials to go through with building something that was going to be a bit more pricey than most standard projects. Being able to set aside a lot of money at the beginning with the uncertainty of how it may turn out in the future is something that requires a lot of thought, and I completely understand how this could be tiring in the end. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. I noticed that the Post Road Library was a silver level LEED certified building. Do you know anything about this, and if so, can you tell me about the reason why the county funded a library to be environmentally-friendly? The Former Director of the Library System is an avid hiker and he used to visit Sawnee Mountain weekly to hike the trails after we opened the visitor center. He began asking questions about the process to one of his Board Members who happened to also be the President of the Sawnee Mountain Foundation. The Sawnee Mountain Foundation President thought it would be a great idea to build a LEED certified building and suggested speaking with me about the process and what could be expected, if it was it worth it, and what the benefits would be. After some lengthy discussions with me and assurances of success, he proposed the idea to his Board and received approval to proceed. It's amazing that, through your avocation of constructing environmentally-friendly buildings, you were able to impact an important county official into designing a building of their own - and not just any building, a library! Having a library with LEED certification allows for even more people to learn about how awesome taking care of the earth really can be. For as busy as a library is on a day-to-day basis, it's easy to realize that libraries attract a wide range of demographics, which can in turn help impact a large percentage of the local population. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. How difficult is it for a building to obtain a LEED certification, and how long does the process typically take? It's not very difficult if you are committed to seeing it through as a matter of principle. It does add some extra costs and time to a building project. Hiring an experienced LEED AP certified architect and engineering firm helps make the process a lot more easier because they know the hoops that have to be jumped through. This surprises me, I always would've thought that a "fancy," government certification process would take a long time to be completed. However, through using the LEED AP certified architect, the amount of paperwork required reduced significantly. If I ever decide to go through with designing my own LEED-certified building, I'll definitely make sure to hire a LEED AP certified architect! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. What are the benefits of designing and promoting LEED certified buildings? The benefits are twofold. For one, it's going to save a lot of operation and maintenance costs over its lifespan versus a traditionally built structure. The second benefit is that this recognition can be used as a great educational and interpretive tool for visitors to show how they can incorporate small changes to their home's energy usage and efficiency. If we want to ensure that future generations have a safe, clean place to live, it's important that we have opportunities to educate everyone, especially the youth, in how there are ways outside of recycling and cleaning up garbage to make the world a better place. I think through LEED, we are able to accomplish this. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. What are the drawbacks? There are a little more up front costs, and the extra time added to fund those costs can add to the completion of an overall project. Public funded facilities tend to also have politically-charged arguments from tax payers due to extra costs and timelines. Sometimes ideas with good intentions are picked apart by both sides of the argument and take the idea as an insult to their political ideologies. If I've learned anything through my mentor, it's that the world of recycling and waste management isn't all smooth-sailing. Politics always finds a way to seep into everything within society, but this is especially true for eco-friendly promotion. It's been an issue since the 1960's, and I'm thankful that people, regardless of what their political party affiliation may or may not be, realize that it's important to reduce our carbon footprint and make the world a better place! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. If you had the opportunity to educate the public about the importance of LEED, how would you do so? I do it all the time. I explain to folks when I give tours of the Visitor Center that we designed it this way using a "dollars and cents (sense)" philosophical approach (he paused a moment to laugh at the pun). We spent a little more money up front but would see a cost savings of at least tenfold over the lifespan of the building. For example, in 2012 I took 3 years of utility bills from 3 other similar county buildings and compared them to the visitor center's. Our utility usage and bills were anywhere from one third to one half the cost of similar county facilities. Point made! Also, our programs at the visitor center are based in 3 major thematic areas: Preservation, Conservation and Stewardship. Building the center to basic LEED certification standards helped us put our money where our mouth was and we were able to "walk the talk," if you will. Wow! It seems that, even after a little more than ten years of the visitor's center's completion, you've been able to still educate the public on how beneficial LEED actually is. Having utility bills nearly cut in half is an incredible feat. It not only reduces the operating costs, but it also shows the public that they can do this in their own homes and businesses, too. I think that one is never too young or too old to learn about the ways they can take care of their world. 10. What has been the biggest takeaway from managing LEED-certified buildings? If you can spend a little more now to save a lot later why wouldn't you? It's not difficult to obtain the certification and if the overall process scares you, then just do as much as you can. Just incorporating small, eco-friendly design elements, such as energy-efficient light bulbs, can have a big effect on your overall costs over time. And why wouldn't anyone want to save money in the long run? I definitely agree. I think that, while initial costs may seem to be a bit steep and the overall process is daunting, it's going to be worth it in the long run. Even if average people don't design LEED-certified buildings, learning from what goes into them can impact their lives for the better. Whether it's installing a water-saving toilet in one of their bathrooms, or purchasing energy-efficient appliances, it's clear to see that everyone has the opportunity to impact the environment in a positive way. And all of the little steps people take can surely add to a huge reduction in our carbon footprint! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ Having this opportunity really helped me get a better idea of how I want to approach my capstone project, and gave me tons of answers to the things I was curious about. |
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