Hey, my name is Michael Estrada and I’m a student from Ms. Hernandezs’ English 101 class. On April 27, 2012 a couple of students and I took part in cleaning up the LA River. Others might have complained about having to attend an event like this but I actually had fun doing something beneficiary to my community. As I walked passed the river bed and into the LA River I felt a bit of anxiety, not knowing what to expect down there; I was amazed to find so much trash in a place where it’s suppose to look clean and beautiful. The LA River looked more like a creek filled with dump rather than a river. But by seeing others contribute into making the LA River look clean and beautiful once again, inspired me to do the same. I took a lot of excitement out of getting the opportunity to be part of something like this. I just hope I can be part of it again someday.

Hi my name is Miriam Delgado and I am a student in Mrs. Ximena Hernandez class English 101. I attended the L.A river clean up where I experience something new in my life. As I clean up the L.A river I noticed that as a society all we are doing is damaging are planet by throwing trash down in the streets and the trash ends up in the river. As I clean up the river some of the stuff that I pick up were plastic bottles, cans, cabinet doors, sticks and even underware. I had a great experiece cleaning up the L.A river and made me realize that it is important for one to clean up the place that we live in. Nature is something that as a society we suppose to take care of and not trash it. We need to teach are next generation of kids that nature is something important that we need to take care of. Nature gives us beautiful stuff and because of that we suppose to give something back to it by planting trees or flowers.  

Hello, my name is Ashley Cruz and I am a student in Professor Ximena Hernandez's English 101 class. One of our assignments was to go to Dockweiler Beach or the LA River to help clean up. I never knew how much trash the LA River had until i got there. As i was cleaning I picked up alot of interesting things. I found a soccer shoe tied up to a branch, a shirt, boxers, headphones, beer cans, metal bars, and a sleeping bag. I noticed that there were alot of plastic bags everywhere. Seeing all this trash in the LA River made me realize that not many people care for the environment.This goes back to the Environment readings i read in my English 101 class because as years go by people are slowly forgetting about Nature and are more interested in technology. I do not understand why some people rather trash our environment and not help keep it cleen.

LA River Clean Up

Hello, My name is Skarlet J. Castro. I am part of  Mrs. Ximena Hernandez's English 101class. I was able to have the opportunity to serve the LA community and clean the LA River. Most of us who attended came across an immense amount of trash that was shocking. It revealed the reason why the oceans are so polluted, and how global warming is being created. It became clear that all of us have contributed to the littering, and careless behavior  leading our environment to where it is now.

                       Giving back and serving our community showed us how we can change the way things are in our environment. Also how little by little we can better our world. Having the experience of seeing what our world is coming to opened up alot of eyes, and changed most of our decision making. Imagine taking out tons of bags with filthy trash from the LA river, which is just a small portion of the world. Now imagine the trash all over your city and the world? Most of which is plastic. There were plastic tubes, metal, plastic bottles, cans, a great amount of plastic bags stuck on plants, old clothing, shopping carts, glass, aluminum. All of these things can be recycled, but we all need to contribute to the change.

The purpose of my classmates and I going to the L.A River was to clean. As I walked around, I have seen a lot of trash that made me wonder how it got there. Obviously most people have no idea that the trash they throw out from their car window or on the streets somehow end on the L.A River. Therefore, day after day, trash after trash, collapse into more and more trash. I experience a connection with nature, something I have not done before. I was one of the persons that will never mind nature because I believed nature will always remain as nature. However, at this point that thought has vanished and I realize how much damage has been cause to nature, overall. This activity relates to the readings of the environment we have read in class and to the prompt of our essay. Indeed, this experience has made me realized the important of nature and why we should care and be careful we the threats we construct in our life.

Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Clean Up! :)

Hi everyone, my name is Ruth Tesfai and I am one of Professor Jenny Hicks' students. This is my community service project. Unfortunately I was not able to attend Dockweiler Beach and the LA River clean up, however, in order to give back to the community I decided to go on campus and do a clean up. While I was doing this duty, I had a few of my friends help me. We came across so much trash that is was quite shocking. We had bags for cans/bottles so that we can recycle afterwards and another bag for trash to throw away. I feel like this experience has taught me a lot and it showed me how important it is to keep our environment clean. The most common trash I came across was paper, candy rappers, and empty bags of chips. Once my group and I made it down to the dorm area, we started coming across little pieces of water balloons, hangers, and even more plastic bottles.Not only are those things bad for the environment, but it can also harm animals. I feel like I have learned a lot and this experience has taught me that it is very important to keep our surroundings clean for our health and planet. 

Neighborhood Clean-up

Hi, my name is Desiree Silva and I am currently a student at Cal State LA. My English 101 class had an assignment for all the students to attend a service learning community event. With the permission of my teacher Jenny Hicks I decided to clean up around my neighborhood. I took this chance to do my part in my community to make it a better cleaner place. On a Saturday morning a couple of my friends, some students, two teachers, and I went to help around my high school and neighborhood. We all were paired up so we can help to clean up all around the school and community more. It was sad when I saw candy wrappers, bottles, glass, cigarettes, cardboard, and carpets just thrown around my neighborhood. I am glad that some of the students from the high school, my friends, the two teachers, and I went to clean that day because we were all doing our part in making our community a better place for everyone. It took us two hours to clean up around my neighborhood and high school. We also made sure to recycle the bottles and after we were all done we were proud that we made a difference that day. My friends, students, teachers and I will continue to do my part in my community to make it a better place.