Environmental organizations provide valuable resources for students and the community to engage in opportunities to look after the planet and environment. There are many organizations on campus that represent positive messages of sustainability. For example, there is Epsilon Eta, Green Sharks and Nature Club.
Epsilon Eta
Epsilon Eta is an environmental honors fraternity and environmental conservation organization that is motivated to find individuals thatwho have a positive mindset and the will to help their environment thrive. These students have intellectual relationships with one another and hold their academics in high regard, creating networking opportunities within the Nova Southeastern University community and outside of it.
There is a rushing process with a series of events that allow you to meet other members and get to know the organization from a closer point of view. They require you to attend a few meetings and events, but overall want people who truly care about the environment and want to spread awareness. Some events they have had in the past were a game night, beach cleanups and environmental workshops that cater to job and internship experience.
The organization has influence and passion for bettering the environment through academics and connections.
Green Sharks
Green Sharks is a sustainability club that tailors itself to the need of educating students, staff and the university itself. They want to communicate their goals and environmental issues to the community.
Olivia Cantalupo, co-president of Green Sharks expresses their objectives.
“Our main goal is to educate students, faculty and the community as a whole about sustainability issues and to advocate for more sustainable alternatives on campus and just kind of promote overall sustainability,” said Cantalupo.
The organization holds many educational talks to discuss how to be sustainable and preserve the environment.
“We do a lot of educational events every month. We have sustainability one-on-ones where we’ll bring in some sort of expert in the field, whether it’s like a professor that does research, or we’ve had RA’s come and talk about ways you can be more sustainable in the dorms,” said Cantalupo.
This semester they had speaker Alexandria Gordon discuss Florida PIRG Student Sustainability 101, lecturing about climate change, public health and feeding the hungry.
Green Sharks, like many organizations on campus, have a set of goals to achieve. Cantalupo explained an important goal of the use of recycling on campus, that affects NSU’s outlook on the issue.
“So, we can put pressure on people at Nova to start recycling because NSU does not recycle. They say that they do, and we put the recycling bins out, but all of it just goes into the same place. It’s all just into the trash. We used to recycle, but the town of Davie stopped because there are problems with recycling in South Florida in general, and we haven’t started [again.] I believe it stopped like 2019.”
This organization has a mission to spread sustainably and educate the NSU community. Overall, Green Sharks wants to encourage everyone to think of the environment more and have a better understanding of preserving the environment around us.
Nature Club
Nature Club is an organization that cares deeply about bringing the beauty of nature to campus. They go on trips, hikes, snorkeling excursions and camping expeditions. The organization also has valuable elements that cater to student’s educational needs and interests in the outdoors.
For example, the organization oversees NSU’s Healing and Medicinal Garden which is a beautiful part of campus. The purpose of the Healing and Medicinal Garden is to help calm people and help retain positive energy by being one with nature. There is even a reflexology pathway that provides stimulus points on one’s feet by walking the path barefoot.
Overall, these environmental organizations all have similar goals to promote environmental needs and provide the community with endless opportunities to get involved. The environment is a crucial part of maintaining our planet, and it is important to remember to take care of the ecosystems around us.
