Half of the University of Illinois is located in Champaign, a city of just over 83,000 residents, making it larger than Bloomington and twice the size of Urbana (“Population” 2014). Just nine blocks west and a few blocks north from the Northwest corner of the Engineering Quad is my favorite area in Champaign. Here you will find many restaurants that are popular among college students and families alike, including the Destihl (a popular spot for graduations and birthdays), Kofusion (which serves dollar sushi on Sundays and Monday Evenings), and Guido’s (which is frequently packed on game night). Multiple bars and clubs also occupy this stretch of downtown Champaign, making it a common destination for fraternities and sororities that are having events together. Less than five blocks from here is an Amtrak station, able to take you further south to New Orleans, or up north to Chicago.

I have always accepted, almost as a matter of chance, that this area is commercial instead of residential. I did not know that chance has next to no part in the development or growth of a city. I owe my favorite spot in Champaign to the careful planning and decisions of the Planning and Development Department of Champaign, and the city planners behind the scenes. Recently, city planners in Champaign have recently tried to become even more efficient with the city’s space.

While my go-to places have been there for quite some time, Champaign is a changing and dynamic city. On March 1, 2011 the City adopted the Champaign Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan. This plan included 6 goals and guidelines to 1) help Champaign grow economically while still accommodating all age groups, 2) have all neighborhoods enjoy convenient services and recreation, 3) embrace community identities of beautiful and unique neighborhoods, 4) promote health in the community, 5) complete public facilities, and 6) create a sustainable city that reduced consumption and emissions (Champaign Tomorrow).

In Champaign, the city planners were able to create this plan from the ground up. One of the City planners, Lacey Rains Lowe, explained how every plan, including this one, has to “reflect what the community wants and their goals.” To make these goals a reality, the planners had to conduct background research by talking to members of the community; they had to generate interest in the plan, and address zoning restrictions within the community. These steps are everyday essentials for city planners.

City planning is just one of several specified focuses of urban planning (much like a doctor can specialize in one area of surgery, or a lawyer can practice one area of law). No matter where you are, an urban planner had a hand in shaping your environment. Urban planning helps use limited space in the most effective way possible. This past summer I spent some time in Northern Sweden, where a city planner had created the layout of a brand new town in the Arctic Circle. In warmer regions, such as the Southern Atlantic Coasts of the United States, Coastal planners try to find balance between beachfront properties and the beach. Here in the Midwest, land use planning determines where farms begin and where urban development ends.

The skills necessary for any urban planner are not unlike those necessary for many other professions. Ms. Lowe explained how anyone with clear presentation and communication skills, along with the ability to persuade and write clearly, could be successful in this career. Most importantly, an urban planner needs to be able to work with many people, some of who won’t agree with you on issues. For example, when the Comprehensive Plan was developing, the mayor of Champaign at the time did not believe that man caused climate change. Including aspects of sustainability was an important priority to Ms. Lowe. Instead of dropping that aspect from the plan, she focused on the economic benefits of sustainability, instead of the environmental. By taking a different approach, Ms. Lowe was still able to include sustainability as one of the goals, and the mayor was able to agree to it.

Urban planning is also a profession that someone can find a passion for with many different educational backgrounds. Ms. Lowe thought she wanted to be an architect until her senior year in college, when she did a project that worked with new development and planning in a neighborhood. By the middle of her senior year she decided urban planning was what she wanted to do, and she got her masters in urban planning. She is just one example of how not only can you practice urban planning in multiple places, but you can pursue it with multiple undergraduate degrees (not just a BA in urban planning).

I’ve never questioned how the layout of the town creates the mood, or determines which shops move in where, or affects the success of local businesses versus national chains. My unquestioning enjoyment of Downtown Champaign is the result of precise and calculated decisions by the city’s planners. I’m excited to see how the city advances to become more sustainable and developed in its neighborhoods.

Works Cited

“Population.” U.S. – Google Public Data Explorer. U.S. Census Bureau, 19 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=kf7tgg1uo9ude_&met_y=population&idim=place%3A1712385%3A1777005%3A1706613&hl=en&dl=en>.

Rains Lowe, Lacey. “Steps to Becoming a City Planner.” Personal interview. 9 Dec. 2014.

United States. Champaign City Council. Planning and Development Department. Champaign Tomorrow 2011 Comprehensive Plan. By Bruce A. Knight, Rob Kowalski, Zeba Aziz, Lacey Rains Lowe, and Mishauno Woggon. City of Champaign, 1 Mar. 2011. Web. 14 Dec. 2014. <http://ci.champaign.il.us/cms/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/2011-Comp-Plan.pdf>.

Most people, including myself, have a very distinct idea of what owls are, and how they behave. As I look around my room, owls of every shape, color, and purpose surround me. I have owl hooks, figurines, and paintings. The owl is the symbol of my sorority, and it was chosen to represent wisdom. I was ecstatic when owl items started to become more popular in retail stores. Yet I realized, while the owl is abundant in stores across Illinois, I have never seen this wise animal in real life. Illinois once had an abundance of the Barn Owl, and now it struggles to maintain a population at all. As I looked into the once abundant birds, I realized that Barn Owls are as unique as they are admired.

Found across every continent (except Antarctica), the Barn Owl has proven its ability to adapt to a wide range of climates and habitat. The habitat it occupies in Illinois is mostly in southern Illinois; it includes grasslands, forests, agricultural fields, woodlots, and fields (All About Birds). A very secretive bird, it nests in empty crevices such as cliffs, hallow trees, and old barns. However, since barns have changed from the classic wooden structure to the cold, shiny metal, the number of barn nesters has decreased (Barn Owl). At the same time, their need in barns has not diminished. Growing up near a barn, Karly Anderson (now a Kappa) knows first hand how helpful these owls are to farmers looking to keep rodents away. “While the owls could sometimes be intimidating, there was always a mutual understanding that these large birds were keeping the barn clear of mice. This was job I had no problem sharing.”

Every home needs a mothers touch, and a nest is no exception. A female will make a nest not out of hard, pointy sticks, but out of the pellets she coughs up. The pellets are shredded with the bird’s long sharp talons and then arranged into a cup. Once the nest is prepared, and the eggs are laid, it is up to the father to bring home the bacon, or mice as they prefer (All About Birds).

A mouse within a Barn Owl’s territory has almost no chance of escape. The owl’s prey can scurry, scamper, or squeeze through any shrub it wants to hide in. It will be found. An undisturbed circle silhouettes the barn owl’s head. Smooth and deadly, the ears are hidden in the feathers as they listen for their next meal among the grasses. The left ear, slightly higher than the right one, is positioned with a slight tilt downward. The lower right ear is tilted upward. This predator advantage allows the owl to distinguish between sounds that occur above it, and sounds that are generated below its flight pattern (Barn Owl Biology). The ability to focus solely on sounds below, and determine which direction it comes from, makes escape for any detected prey and impossible dream.

Any rodent avoiding mealtime might hope to remain completely silent and still. This would be a false hope. Black eyes present a stark contrast to the white feathers that fill the face. When its eyes are fully open, it has a look of innocent inquiry.   When they are squinting, giving an upward slant to the blackness, it stares as if it knows something you don’t. The owl’s expressive eyes have excellent sight at night as it swoops down toward the mouse (All About Birds).

Equally as impressive as its ability to catch prey, the owl has evolved to avoid the animals that see it as food. Its back and wings are a mix of beautiful burnt orange, white, and brown. The short tail feathers curve slightly up, emphasizing the dramatic curve and fullness of the chest. The colors blend with the dried out grasses it hunts in most of the year. From above the owl becomes part of the landscape. From below it becomes part of the sky. The white chest is not covered in only a small number of striking features like the face. It is covered with many small dots of red, which go almost unnoticed in the white feathers if not looked at closely. The white is hard to detect against bright skies during the day (The Barn Owl Trust).

The owl has represented my sorority for over 150 years, and it has demonstrated wisdom in America for even longer. Unfortunately, the barn owl is now endangered in Illinois. This beautiful bird deserves to thrive in its natural habitat. Its striking features should not be lost. It would be a sad loss for Illinois if this animal were lost to the prairie state.

An undisturbed circle silhouettes the barn owl’s head. Smooth and deadly, the ears are hidden in the feathers as they listen for their next meal among the grasses. Black eyes present a stark contrast to the white feathers that fill the face. The only other characteristic on the almost perfectly circular head is the outline of a yellow beak, creating a deep V from the inside corners of the eyes to almost the bottom of the face. This deep outline is mirrored in a subtle imitation by a widows peak on the top of the head, a subtle indent that seems almost as if the beak brought down the forehead slightly. The white chest is not covered in only a small number of striking features like the face. It is covered with many small dots of red, which go almost unnoticed in the white feathers if not looked at closely. The wings are a mix of beautiful burnt orange, white, and brown. The short tail feathers curve slightly up, emphasizing the dramatic curve and fullness of the chest. When not in flight, the bird stands on white legs that appear to be the same length at its beak, with sprawling burnt-orange talons. When its eyes are fully open, it has a look of innocent inquiry.   When they are squinting, giving an upward slant the to the blackness, it stairs as if it knows something you don’t. Purely an intimidation factor, the owl’s expressive eyes are completely unnecessary as it swoops down toward the sound of a scurrying mouse.

People often view themselves as separate from nature. Nature is there when they want it, and not there when they want to ignore it. This perception is false. Nature supports every aspect of our lives from what we eat to protecting us from damaging floods. If we weaken nature by reducing biodiversity, we weaken our own support system.

There is no such thing as an isolated event. Every loss in species generates further problems, even if they aren’t apparent at first. For example, bees are currently disappearing. A lot of people are allergic to bee stings, and others just don’t like them. So a few less bees seems like an easy thing to accept. However, these bees are needed to pollinate our food. Without them, millions of dollars and increased resources are needed to artificially pollinate our food. This could have a spiral affect of increased food prices, etc. We don’t know all of the ramifications from bees disappearing, but we do know it affects people.

Ignorance is not bliss, but our enemy. Ignorance keeps us defenseless. There could be the cure to cancer out in a natural landscape, some plant or animal that holds this fix. However, if we wipe it out, we will never find that. We don’t know what all the benefits to people are from different species. We remain ignorant. The only way to make sure we don’t loose something incredibly valuable is to not loose species or biodiversity.

It’s aesthetically pleasing. It’s fully functional. And it’s energy neutral. The electrical and computer engineering building on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an accomplishment not just for the University, but also for the world. It sets a new standard for what is achievable in a world trying to balance minimal environmental impact with maximum technological advancement.

The new electrical and computer engineering, or ECE, building is the largest LEED Platinum Certified building in the world. Before my tour of the building from graduate student Ankit Jain, who is continuing his masters at UIUC after receiving his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, I did not know what it meant to be LEED certified. LEED Platinum certificates are given to green buildings that earn a certain number of points based on factors such as how much energy they use, what materials were used to build the structure, etc. It quickly became apparent that this new building starts earning this status before anyone even walks through the front doors.

To get to the building, it is hardly necessary to drive there. Numerous bike racks are in place to help accommodate bikers. Moreover, there are showers in the basement so those who bike don’t have to worry about being uncomfortable and sweaty all day in class or the lab. There are also several buses that drop off a block from the building to optimize public transportation, and for those that drive electric cars there are plug-in ports available for them to recharge while they work.

Once you reach the outside structure you notice its beautiful orange-brown color. While the terracotta bricks have a beauty component to them, they are also a very practical choice. They has several sustainable qualities to them. Terracotta is completely recyclable, natural, and extremely durable (even more durable than brick). In addition its porous makeup slows the rate that rain runoff hits the ground. This reduces problems that can occur such as flooding and drowning plants. Furthermore, this material acts as an effective insulator for the building, reducing wasted energy from heated or cooled air escaping.

In addition to the structure itself being created out of natural materials, the landscape around the building is natural to central Illinois. Professor Philip Krein is the man responsible for designing the efficiency of the building, and making it become a reality. He explained how they chose natural plants to surround the building, reducing maintenance while increasing runoff control and sustainability.

Once you walk through those front doors, a lobby filled with natural light greets you. Not only is this an energy efficient tactic, since the more natural light utilized the less energy needed to supplement it, but it makes the space more inviting instead of claustrophobic. The minimal light that is needed to supplement the natural light comes from LED light bulbs, which is a tribute to Illini pride in its own right. Professor Nick Holonyak who retired just last year invented the LED light bulb.

As you walk through the lobby and up the stairs, abstract pieces of silver catch your eye. These pieces are recycled bits of glass used to construct the floor. The comfortable air temperature is controlled in the summer though the use of shades and glass that filters solar rays while allowing the light to pass through. In the winter more light is allowed in and heat is trapped through efficient insolation.

Other tactics to reduce energy are utilized at every step. A chilled beam system cools water at night when less energy is needed, and this water is then used during the day. Another example is instead of cooling the entire auditorium on the first floor, which is the third largest auditorium on campus; they use individualized systems of air circulation around each seat. Still, the biggest bragging rights that the building boasts is its status of sustainability as a net-zero energy use building. The department will install solar panels both on the roof of the building and on its parking garage to generate enough energy to compensate any energy used throughout the year. This building leaves no energy footprint.

The energy accomplishments of the building come at no cost to its function as a place of education. The building hosts numerous innovations for classroom engagement. A brand new lab hosts equipment that allows students to work on a nano scale. No other university in the country has that. Other labs are spread throughout the building allowing students to work on individual creative projects, such as an open projects lab. This produced an automated foosball table that was so good it was unbeatable, and an automated electric guitar that played Stairway to Heaven better than Led Zeppelin. In total there are over 21 labs, 19 meeting rooms, and 18 classrooms available to students and professors.

The new ECE building combines efficiency with innovation. As I concluded my tour of the latest source of pride on campus, Ankit Jain commented that, “this is a building that is a clear step forward.” I can only hope that the rest of the world steps with it.

As a child I was taught that the circle of life included eating animals, just as all carnivorous predators eat their prey. It was the idea of this natural order that allowed me to ignore the vegetarian plea of not eating animals for the sake of saving that animal’s life. However, my rationale no longer holds any truth. We are not eating animals that exist in the circle of life, or that live and die as part of the natural order of nature.

Meat in the local grocery store is the result of an industrialized conveyor belt that generates meat apart from nature. I first discovered this about six years ago when the documentary “Food Inc.” was released. The film includes information on how animals, especially chicken and cows, are raised and killed in today’s system. Chickens grow in half the time that they used to, while reaching sizes twice as large. Cows became big enough to eat at an even more impressive rate. Michael Pollan describes in “Power Steer” the life of a cow in today’s beef industry. In the course of two generations, cows went from taking five years to reach slaughter weight to only taking 16 months. This is progress from a detached viewpoint.

It is the details that illuminate the problems with this system. The chickens are raised in windowless, packed chicken houses. They never see light, and grow at rates that their bodies can’t support, rendering them incapable of taking more than a few steps. Hundreds of cows are slaughtered every hour after a life spent standing and laying in their feces. This manure spreads E. Coli among the cows and into our food (Food Inc.). This system generates huge environmental and ethical problems. Still, I am not convinced that the solution is for me to become a vegetarian.

Pollan, in “An Animals Place,” describes asking people to stop eating meat solely for the purpose of preserving animal rights as “a moral cliff from which we may not be prepared to jump.” I argue that asking people not to eat meat, for any combination of reasons –including moral, health, and/or environmental –creates the same cliff for people. People just don’t want to give up their pulled pork sandwiches, their steaks, or their fried chicken.

So I don’t ask that people give up meat and dedicate themselves to tofu. Instead, I ask that the meat we do eat, that is available to us as an option in the supermarkets, be the result of a different process. Animals should be raised using organic methods. If cows ate grass, this would eliminate the need for energy used to produce and transport grain for the cows. If cows lived in fields, this would reduce the need to ship manure offsite. As Dr. Dawn Aubrey, the Associate Director of Dining for Housing at the University of Illinois, said, “There isn’t a food that is entirely evil. There are just some choices that are better than others.” Organic methods can be just as efficient, if not more so, as industrialized methods (Food Inc.).

A common concern with organic and traditional methods is whether or not they will allow us to feed the growing world. I ask, do we need to feed it with meat? History tells us that we don’t. People have lived on less meat in the past, and can live on more fruits and vegetables in the future. In less than 10 years, food wasted by students has decreased by 80% at dining halls at the University of Illinois. At the same time, fruit and vegetable consumption has increased by 35%. Feeding the world isn’t a question of meat production. It is a question of allocated resources. And we can allocate in a way that doesn’t compromise animals or people.

When I first saw “Food Inc.” while in eighth grade, I ate a few meals without meat before I gave in to chicken nuggets with my favorite dipping sauce of tangy barbeque. Watching it now as an adult who chooses for herself what to eat for dinner, I didn’t try to cut meat out of my diet. Instead, I cut back on how much meat I’m eating, opting for a salad instead of a second burger. I choose organic chicken in the store despite the extra couple of dollars. I make conscious decisions to reduce my support of a system devoid of natural structure. I manage to have my cake meat, and eat it too.

Works Cited

Aubrey, Dawn. “Food in the University of Illinois’s Dining Halls.” Personal interview. 2 Oct. 2014.

Food Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. Movie One, 2008. DVD.

Pollan, Michael. “An Animal’s Place.” The New York Times Magazine 10 Nov. 2002: n. pag. Michael Pollan. Web. 14 Oct. 2014. <http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/an-animals-place/>.

Pollan, Michael. “Power Steer.” The New York Times Magazine 31 Mar. 2002: n. pag. Michael Pollan. Web. 12 Oct. 2014. <http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/power-steer/>.

Watching Food Inc., I wanted to become a vegetarian. However, this wasn’t the first time I thought that. I have known for a few years how eating meat has a significantly higher carbon impact than eating vegetables or grains. I have thought a few times about becoming a vegetarian for that reason. Or, if I didn’t become a full vegetarian, maybe I would eat meat only on certain days. These thoughts never stuck as commitments. Meat is almost always offered in meals I want when I eat out, or it’s one of my only protein options in my sorority house meal plan. Being a vegetarian would be inconvenient.

Food Inc. gave me a different reason to want to be a vegetarian. The way that animals are raised now seems inhumane. The chickens are so manipulated by hormones that they can’t walk. Their organs and bodies grow at twice the rate they should.   They never get to see sunlight. It is disgusting that people feel they have the right to do that to living creatures.

Other animals are not treated any better. Cows spend all day standing in their own manure, eating grains that their bodies weren’t meant to digest. The movie shows these images, and then it shows a natural farm. The animals are raised the old fashion way with cows eating grass and chickens seeing sunlight. I feel that we don’t have to lose part of humanity in the way we treat animals before we eat them. We shouldn’t lose part of our humanity for production’s sake. At the same time, I don’t think everyone should be a vegetarian. We just need to change the system, not our diets.

1. Since smart phones and smart devices have redefined leisure time, do people take less care of their backyards and gardens because they’re less interested in their surroundings compared to their virtual ones? Or have smart phones kept people so connected to their jobs that they don’t have time for up keep?
2. If plants are becoming harder to grow, such as basil plants, are they worth the individual labor, or is buying from the store a more productive use of time? What is the harm of accepting supermarkets for what you could grow yourself?

I recently found myself surrounded by hundreds of native prairie flowers less than six blocks from where I have lived for over a year. I never knew they were there, but being in the middle of that small prairie was peaceful, refreshing, and calming. I was able to talk to Ken Robertson, a retired plant systematist, and John Marlin, a retired restoration research affiliate and the organizer for the natural prairie that flourishes at the corner of Florida and Orchard in Urbana, IL. They explained the painstaking work that took 100s and 100s of hours and a team of volunteers from across the community to accomplish the natural mural I was observing of yellows, greens, reds, whites, and purples. Many people choose not to partake in environmental improvement efforts under the belief that one situation won’t make any real difference. As I walked through the flowers that reached over my head, it was clear to me that it did matter. It matters that the prairie is there, and it matters that the restoration project was a success. Having that prairie impacts the environment, how people learn about prairies in the prairie state, and it impacts people’s emotional response to nature.

Any sized restoration project accomplishes four important things for people, one of which being that it improves the quality of the land for people (Clewell 2006). Instead of a plot of land covered in weeds and invasive species, I was able to stand in the middle of a thriving landscape, a space that Roberts described as, “one of the most endangered habitats of North America”. I saw a small yellow and black goldfinch eating the seeds of a purple monarda flower. I walked through flower stems almost up to my height that were enriching the soil naturally, without the need of intense fertilizing. I was able to imagine what Illinois looked like before soybeans and cornrows claimed the landscape. By planting prairies, depleted soils can also go back to a time before commercialized crops.

The second benefit of the restored prairie is the increased variety in biodiversity that now encompasses the land (Clewell 2006). Instead of a space overcrowded with violets, an aggressive invasive plant that people concerned with the survival of native plants consider one of the more despised weeds, there are dozens and dozens of native flowers and insects. This biodiversity helps keep the land productive in case disease or an invasive species threatens to wipe out one plant.

The prairie also provides an educational opportunity for anyone who is willing to learn (Clewell 2006). The project pulls volunteers from the University, local primary and secondary schools, and the community at large. Literally all ages from 3 to 96 have devoted time to the success of the prairie, and in that time they have learned what is required to make a restoration project succeed. People can learn what Illinois looked like before industrialized agriculture dominated the state, and activists can get ideas of how to incorporate different tactics into successful projects of their own.

Fourth, natural landscapes appeal to the human spirit, calming it from stresses that an urban environment creates (Clewell 2006). There is a reason that no protest occurred when placing this prairie next to the President of the University’s house. Having a large span of beautiful flowers is desirable, people enjoy it, and it creates a pleasant retreat from the brick and concrete that normally surrounds us. For one hour while I visited the prairie, I was able to tune out the traffic, the lawn mowers, and the constant sound of phones ringing and vibrating. I was able to enjoy a natural beauty that blooms every year. I was able to start off my day more relaxed, calm, and serene. People haven’t created a world where we are cut off from nature. Rather, we have created a world where we chose to ignore nature in our artificially constructed atmospheres. It was rejuvenating to forget artificial construction for a little while.

Any restoration project, despite its size, budget, or how long it has been there, inherently accomplishing all of these important aspects. It is these projects that add up to big differences in the environment. Any one person, from 3 to 96, can improve the environmental condition of the world. It just takes time and a little bit of dirt on the hands.

I have always enjoyed reading and writing.  I like seeing different styles, and exploring different voices for my own writing.  Most of my difficulties are with the technicalities of writing; my strength is coming up with ideas for my papers.  I wish that I had more assignments where I was able to explore different styles, but I understand the importance of analytical writing.  Mainly, my writing takes time, and I hope to improve the quality of it, not quantity.

As a writer my two greatest weaknesses are grammar and being concise.  Sometimes my sentences can become slightly wordy or awkward.  That is why I almost always have anything I write, proofread by someone else.  It is hard for me to see my mistakes or where I am unclear.  In addition, I sometimes get writers’ block.  It’s usually hard for me to push past it, and I normally have to pick up my writing the next day.

I am normally able to do well on papers for school.  However, I do not especially enjoy the writing I have had to do for most of high school and college.  Mainly I have had to write research papers or a paper that analyzes a piece of writing.  What I enjoy is creative writing.  Coming up with stories, ideas, and fiction is the most fun for me.  In college I haven’t had many opportunities for that.  Instead, college has focused on coming up with a more professional voice that conveys information.  It has been a challenge for me developing a unique voice for that genre of writing.

In this course I hope to develop the ability to convey new information in a way that captures a reader’s attention.  I have never tried a journalistic style of writing, so this will be a new challenge for me.