Greenbeaver@BVU

We here at BVU we always strive to become a better individuals every day. I believe we do this for two reasons. First, we want to make sure that we fulfill our own American Dream. Second, as beaver most of us are concerned with making a positive impact on the world. I think that the best interpretation of the American Dream can be found from following statement: “In the United States’ Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers: "…held certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."

Unfortunately, for some reason the materialistic interpretation of the American Dream is more popular rather than the above one. I sometimes wonder what would have happened to the world if this would have been exported to the whole world rather than just the materialistic interpretation of the American dream. We are rushing everyday to achieve the popular form of the American Dream. In this course, we have lost the track of time to certain extent. It appears to me to we have not chosen the best path and we feel lost sometimes.

Therefore, we refer ourselves as being part of a time starved generation, but recent events have proved to us that we are also starving for energy and resources. The recent rise in the price of gas stands as profound evidence. We struggle and involve ourselves in war too to obtain petro products and many others. During all these years we have affected our mother nature in irreversible way for various reasons. I believe that we should start working right away to protect our environment.

Greenbeaver@BVU is a program launched in collaboration with multiple entities on campus such as Students Concerned about Tomorrow Environment (SCATE). This project will enable us to educate ourselves on environmental issues and lead an environmentally friendly life. On top of that, it will also assist citizens of third world countries to achieve better quality of life.

We will recycle our soda cans, plastic bottles, paper towels, printing papers and virtually everything which is possible to recycle in Storm Lake. The revenue generated from this process will be invested in micro financing. For example we will donate $25 which will assist a family from Tanzania to open a small business. Once they establish themselves, we will have an option to get our money back or reinvest our money again to a different family residing somewhere in a third world country (major world). We will micro finance through Kiva- loans that change lives. The funds that we want to invest will come from our waste products. I am confident that this is self sustainable project. You can assist us by throwing the trash at the appropriate recycle bins.

We all know that BVU stands as the leader in the SL community. I believe Storm Lake community expects us to set an example and be a pragmatic leader. We have been doing this to certain extent; however we have not done much regarding environmental awareness. We have moral, ethical and professional obligations to serve the community and set an example. Given the current circumstances, I believe that we can save our resources by spreading the word of environmental protection. I also want to point out and emphasize that our goal is not only to protect our environment, but we also hope to uplift the lives of others in the third world countries via micro financing. We are confident that our GreenBeaver@BVU project has no hidden operating cost. This is a win-win situation.

Now, I will leave you with this thought. Ask yourself a question: When do we feel best about ourselves as Americans or as human beings in general? I am confident that your response will be: It is when we are doing something to help others. Finally, we are not only doing this because we want to do it, but because we think it is the necessity of our time and it’s the right thing to do. We hope you feel the same way.

We hope to hear your concerns, questions, criticisms or ideas on how to make this project better, if you have any. Please let us hear from you at your earliest convenience by leaving the comments in the box below.