Service and Class Work Hand in Hand

For my Biology II class our professor asked us to volunteer with Kansas City Wildlands to help remove invasive honeysuckle from a bottom land forest along Blue River. This was the first time that I had been asked to do service for a class. I went with some of my residents on a Saturday morning and we helped to clean and remove litter from the area. It was an interesting and sad experience. There was a lot of trash, litter, and clothing that had been thrown away in the area that we were working in. I found a car mat and a sleeping bag that had not been disposed of properly. They were littered about the area that I was cleaning in. I also found old porch materials and busted up concrete that had been covered poorly by someone with brush from a tree. When I started out in the morning volunteering, I wasn't expecting to pick up as much trash and litter that I ended up picking up from the site. I was appalled by the amount of things I found. It is disconcerting because a few people, who chose not to spend the time or the resources to properly dispose of their garbage, are creating a very dangerous environment for wildlife around the area. I talked to the conservationist that we worked with and he told me about a lot of the biological things that were going on in the area. It was really cool getting to see service and education work hand in hand.  I love getting to do hands on projects and it helped that this project could be directly related to things that we had gone over in class. Having the things I am learning being reinforced when I do things in the real world make me feel confident in the education I am receiving as well as confident in my abilities to succeed next year after I graduate.