Marietta, Georgia, April 8, 2021 – In advance of Earth Day on April 22, Life University (LIFE) is holding a series of community service events on its 110-acre campus to promote environmental stewardship and to demonstrate the University’s guiding principle, Lasting Purpose: “To live an inner-directed life, to give, to do, to love, to serve, out of your own abundance.”
LIFE’s Human Ecology degree program is sponsoring the projects in conjunction with the Cobb County watershed stewardship program. Human Ecology professor Dr. Stephanie Wakefield said the events on April 16, April 23 and April 30 will focus on Rottenwood Creek, a tributary of the Chattahoochee River which runs through LIFE’s campus in Marietta, Georgia.
The public is invited to take part in all three events. Volunteers will gather at 10:00 a.m. at the 19th Century Village, located near the LIFE Center for Athletics and Sport Health Science (SHS) at 1266 Barclay Circle. On April 16, members of the LIFE community will work to remove privet, an invasive plant species that grows along the creek and on nearby walking and hiking trails.
“Privet is an ornamental plant that was introduced locally in the 1800s and 1900s,” Dr. Wakefield explained. “It grows and reproduces really fast, so it crowds out a lot of other plants in the area. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the plant, but for our trails and the ecosystem, we want to get rid of some of those things to maintain and increase the biodiversity there.”
The April 23 project is a garbage pickup along the creek and trails, and on April 30, participants will learn how to monitor the creek’s water quality as part of Cobb County’s “Adopt a Stream” water education program.
“From a Human Ecology perspective, one of the things that people can take away from the past year in a positive sense is that being outdoors and reconnecting with nature is so good for our wellbeing,” Dr. Wakefield said. “A lot of people were out hiking a lot more during the pandemic, and that can be something that we carry forward. That reconnection with nature, I think, is something that a lot of people didn’t even know how badly they needed until they were doing it.”
Founded in 1974, Life University is a health sciences institution most known for its Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) program, the largest single-campus chiropractic program in the world. Undergraduates can pursue 13 undergraduate degrees as well as a pre-chiropractic, degree-seeking pathway. Three graduate degrees are available, encompassing areas of sport health science, clinical nutrition and positive psychology. Some degree programs are offered to distance learners through the College of Online Education.
Students who pursue LIFE’s Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology examine the complex relationships between humans and their social, technological and ecological environments, and develop interdisciplinary approaches to growing societal and environmental concerns.
“We are excited about introducing students to ways that they can have a positive impact on nature around them, especially in their communities. We can use the LIFE campus as a living laboratory for increasing biodiversity, sustainability and resilience,” Dr. Wakefield emphasized. “These events are a great opportunity to learn about positive environmental stewardship, as well as for LIFE students to take care of the environment and be responsible for it, in a fun way.”
In addition to the ecological benefits, the Rottenwood Creek events were created as a way for LIFE students to fulfill a new graduation requirement, for which they must complete a minimum number of Serving Lasting Purpose (SLP) projects.
Life University strives to empower its students to succeed both professionally and personally. LIFE advances a leading-edge approach to higher education while also remaining true to the University’s philosophical commitment to produce informed leaders who exemplify humanistic values in their professions. To achieve this goal, LIFE recognizes and demonstrates its dedication through three official Life University Values: Lasting Purpose, Vitalism and Integrity.
LIFE is located just northwest of Atlanta and is home to more than 2,700 undergraduate, graduate and professional students who come from all 50 United States and more than 45 countries.
To find out more about LIFE’s Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology degree program, click here.
For more information on Life University, please visit LIFE.edu.
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