Hello, my name is Erika Hernandez and I am currently a freshman at CSULA taking this English 101 class. This is actually a class that I really enjoy and I just had a great memorable experience as well. This past weekend we actually came along with the Heal the Bay project which I found was a great experience and also made me feel better about actually making a change in our world for better. Environmental issues such as pollution is something that is affecting not only the world we live in today but will also affect us in the future if we don’t put a stop to it and take care of our environment. Now, the project we did consisted of my class and I to go to Dockweiler Beach and clean/pick up trash and other objects that may harm our environment if they were to go into the ocean. Littering is something that is really harming our environment and the reason for this is because all the trash being thrown on the floor or anywhere that goes into the drains eventually end up in our ocean where we have all type of animals that will one day all extinct if we don’t protect them from all this. At the beach we found many harmful objects. Objects such as plastic, cigarette butts, candy wrappers, and cans was what we mostly found around the beach. What was most surprisingly to me that the huge number of cigarette butts and plastic found all along the beach. These two things are some of the most dangerous for our sea animals yet it’s sadly what we mostly found. According to some of our other class mates, they also agreed with us that the objects they mostly came along with were plastic and cigarette butts but there were also some that came along with other things around the beach such as shopping carts, diapers, condoms, bottle caps and many other. I have to admit, it was kind of hard to pick up every little piece of paper and trash we found due to the big amount of it but one of the things we did do was to clean as best as we could and leave the beach as clean as we possibly could hoping to actually create change and to make other people understand that pollution is wrong. In my point of view, I can say it was a great experience cleaning up the beach and it’s something I will definitely do again. Gathering up information/ data to help with statistics also made me feel better since its something productive that is being done. 

 

Pick Up the Pieces

My name is Michell Ramirez and I am a first year student at the California State University of Los Angeles. Unit 1 of my English 101 class involved L.A. & The Environment so on January 24th 2016 the entire class went to the beach. Sounds like a time of leisure, but the class as well as other classes went to Dockweiler State Beach to clean it up. We participated with a group known as "Heal The Bay" that provided us with tally sheets, gloves, and trash bags. At first I was reluctant to go because of the simple fact of waking up early but walking on the beach and picking up trash became relaxing. After a while the weather became pretty nice but looking down at the sand and all those little pieces of trash reminded me of how polluted our pretty beaches and earth is. The beach really is a magnificent part of nature in L.A. as told by Jenny Price in her article. My group and I had picked up various amounts of tiny pieces of plastic, straws, and bottle caps. Sure they were tiny pieces but little pieces add up and these pieces could be found in the bellies of the birds the next day. I learned that it does not take much to help the environment because between some students over 1,000 pieces of trash were picked up that fine Sunday morning. 

Hello, my name is Md. Arif Islam and I am the student of California State University Los Angeles.  In this quarter I am taking English 101 with Ms. Hernandez. In English 101, our first topic was about nature and environments. First three weeks we had a lot of dictation about it, such as we have read some articles and books. Additionally we had to do service learning. Last Sunday our class went to Dockweiler  beach in Los Angeles, unfortunately I could not make it because I had to work on Sunday. But I went to Sunta Monica beach on Saturday to do my service. Sunta Monica beach is not dirty as Dockweiler, but I still found a lot of trash by doing about two hours service.  At first I thought that there is no trash because it looked so clean, but when I got closer, I found many cigarette butts, and small pieces of plastics such as straws, spoons, forks, and some other plastics. I also found a died seagull and I felt so sad, because I think we are responsible for that. Everyday we are throwing tons of trash in the ocean and in the river, those are contaminant the water. Today many animals and bards are dying for contamination.   When I was picking up trash, I felt so proud because at lest I was doing something for our environment. Over all I could say it was a rewarding experience for me and in the future I would like to continue do this kind of service.

Heal the Bay

The Hello my name is Robert Wright. I am a freshman at Cal State LA. For my English 101 class, me and my classmates helped pick up trash at Dockweiler beach for the Heal the Bay activity. We worked together in small groups to record the trash we were picking up. There was lots of trash on the shore and scattered around the sand. We found things like cigarette butts, bottle caps, and lots of straws. I felt good knowing i was helping the environment. Now when I see trash I feel very tempted to pick it up. Cleaning up the beach was a great experience.

Clean Beach

Hello, my name is Brian Torres and I am a freshmen at Cal State Los Angles. For my English 101 class my classmates and I went to Dockweiler Beach, a beach located near the Los Angles Airport. We all participate in a beach clean up with the Heal The Bay Foundation. It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The weather was nice and cool. It was a perfect day to help clean the beach and help out the environment. My classmates and I were split into groups and were given cleaning supplies such as trash bags and latex gloves. After we received our supplies we were on the hunt for some trash that was left behind by Angelenos. My group and I found a lot of dangerous trash that can potential harm the environment and the native beach animals too. We found plenty of cigarette butts and plastic bags that can be eaten by seagulls. These items can cause the seagulls to become very sick because of all the chemicals in the cigarette butts or choke on the plastic. We also found a couple of six pack rings that can be harmful to the animals because they are known to get caught inside the rings. This relates to over class because we are studying all the affects humans can make to the environment. For example we are reading No Impact Man by Colin Beavan. Its about a New Yorker who attempts to not make any impact on the environment. He wants to be environmentally free as much as possible by not producing any trash or hurt the environment in anyway. Overall, it was a great experience to be a part of Heal The Bay. To know that my classmates and I made a positive impact on the environment and cleaned up items that can hurt the beach animals that live there. Who knew that Dockweiler Beach was so full of trash. I now see how bad it is to litter and all the negative affects it can have. I will definitely think twice about littering and I would definitely volunteer again with Heal The Bay again.

Heal the Bay

Hello my name is Elizabeth perez, I am current freshmen in Csula. This past weekend my English class went to do volunteer work at dockweiler beach, with Heal the Bay. This was my first visit at this beach location, and in my suprise it was very dirty compared to other beach location I have visited. This made me think of  back to think about what Jenny Price shared about different part of the cities of Los Angeles have better and cleaner nature depending on their social economic stand. I also was able to see the amount of trash people leave behind, we were able to motor the different trash we picked up, and for my group the majority was plastic and straws. One surprising object I found was pieces of balloons and their strings. I never thought about the balloons we let go in the air and where they end up. overall my experience with Heal the Bay was a good one, and I hope I can wake up earlier for next months.

Heal the Bay

Hello, my name is Isael Barrera and I am a Freshman at Cal State LA. My English 101 class this past Sunday, January 24,2016 went on a class field trip to Docweiler Beach. We participated with Heal the Bay to help pick up trash that is left behind on the beach. This was my first time participating with the organization. I really liked feeling like I was making a positive impact on the environment. We picked up a lot of cigarette butts, bottle caps, and pieces of plastic. The most  bizarre item we found was a shopping cart right by one of the fire pits. I was surprised at how much trash was actually left on the beach, it's crazy to think that maybe later on that day all the trash we might have picked up might have just been replaced with new trash that other people left behind before they left. I just hope that we can continue to try and have a positive impact on the environment.