Justice W

Biomedical Engineering, 3rd-Year

Digital Honors Lounge, Climate Change

This community is a new initiative by UHP to create a social and learning experience in an online format. Channels are created by interest, and I am the student facilitator for the Climate Change channel.

Why I joined the organization + What I do: I volunteered for this position near the beginning of the pandemic because I wanted to keep a connection to the Honors community. Climate change is an imminent threat to our planet, and I want to spread awareness and ways to combat the issue with other students passionate about the topic. Because it is such a new program, there is little structure for my role, so I’ve had to learn what works through trial and error. I provide channel members with resources and material related to climate change, like articles and videos, and facilitate engagement in the channel.

How the UHP Leadership Roundtable helped + What I learned: Before joining the Roundtable, my channel had very little traffic and interaction from members. This is my first time being in a leadership position, so I was very interested in an opportunity to collaborate with other student leaders. We discussed the obstacles our organizations were facing during the pandemic and ways to overcome them. As a group of 15 honors students and campus leaders, our discussions were always informative and engaging. A member had suggested screening documentaries for my channel, which has now become a staple because they bring the most turnout of any of my other events. Although my problems weren’t fixed, it was incredibly valuable to talk about my difficulties with other students facing the same struggles.