Nice to meet chya =]

Hi my name is Amanda Chin and this is my blog, Keep calm and Carry your spork. I grew up in a suburb six miles outside of Boston in Arlington, Massachusetts. It’s a cute little historical town that prides itself on the fact that Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride that started the American Revolution took him through it.  And celery. Arlington grew delicious celery in the 1800’s. (A fun fact that I learned this summer while chatting up my co-workers who were all about 40 years older than me, give or take, while working the polls of a town election. I heard some good war stories too.)

Robbins Farm Park or "Skyline Park," (photo cred to ken ken)

Anyway, I am currently a sophomore at the University of Vermont, majoring in Environmental Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. I haven’t yet declared a minor or an ENVS concentration but in the future, I hope to work for a non-profit with a mission that addresses both environmental and social justice issues. I probably got on this whole track the summer after my junior year of high school when I worked my first summer of two at The Food Project, an organization with the vision of “a world where youth are active leaders, diverse communities feel connected to the land and each other, and everyone has access to fresh, local, healthy, affordable food.” It’s a non-profit, Boston-based farm with a number of different land plots in suburban and urban areas that works to empower a diverse group of youth to advocate for food justice in their own communities, while growing together.  One critical thing out of many that I learned from my time there, was how simply community could come together with a common goal to accomplish something really big. Like a bunch of teens learning to farm while breaking down racial and class boundaries. And then going to run a farmer's market in the inner city where there would otherwise be no access to fresh vegetables.

Harvesting Lettuce in Lincoln, MA (TFP)

So from there, I kept getting involved with a bunch of different organizations that all seemed to have a common thread of social justice, which eventually led me to the conclusion that it was an interest of mine. On campus, I am currently involved with the Eco-Reps program through the UVM Office of Sustainability, FeelGood (gourmet grilled cheese to sustainably end world hunger), The Dewey House of Civic Engagement,  and the Garden Club through Slade (student co-operative living community).

Eco-Reps helping with freshman move-in day (Eco-Reps)

This past summer while I was living on an eco-village/farm/yoga & meditation retreat center/heaven, called Metta Earth Institute, I was informally trained to facilitate a three-hour long Generation Waking Up workshop that is meant to motivate my generation, our generation, to get connected and make social change a.k.a. inspire us to get shit done. Here's a really cool video that is a part of the presentation from a partner organization called, Four Years Go:

So that's a little bit me! I can't wait for the rest of the year and to see where it brings me. Ciao for now :)