My name is Mia. I'm a junior and I'm from Minneapolis and I'm majoring in Biology with a constant concentration in Environmental Studies and Ecology. The thing that I remember most from my visits that become the most relevant to me now is the professors I met with and how open they were to talking with me and figuring out what I wanted out of my education. And today, that is still my absolute favorite thing about Augie. Dr. O'Hara is a great example where I didn't have a class with him until this year. But when I was a freshman, I just heard that he was the "environmental guy." And so I just showed up in his office one day, and we had tea and just talked about all the projects that he was in the middle of, and just seeing what he was doing was really exciting. He was super excited about helping me achieve and plan my own ideas, my own goals. I came here my freshman year and just saw all this turfgrass on campus and saw that it wasn't really being used the whole time. So I went to Dr. O'Hara. And I asked him if there was a reason we couldn't have a prairie. And the prairie garden has some small tangible benefits. But I think the more important thing is establishing this prairie kind of in the campus consciousness. I believe it's really important for all of us to recognize where we live changes who we are, I want this to be a part of the campus community where people you know, they see the plants they see the insects and the birds that are living there and start to think about how do we interact with the world around us and how do we become better neighbors to not just each other, but also to all the all the creatures and the environment and the planet?
