Preliminary Analysis 10/21/25

For my research project, my group is currently gathering data on young adult engagement regarding nature conservation, but specifically water conservation. For my part of this project, I am researching how young adults themselves would like to be engaged when it comes to getting them involved in these activities, clubs, volunteer opportunities, and more. I conducted interviews in order to gather this data and the results allowed me to get a better insight on an obvious problem.

After transcribing these interviews, I came up with the following codes: more publicity, more knowledge on campus organizations, a feeling of helplessness, and other factors in life gets in the way of being engaged. Out of those codes, one major theme that stuck out to me was that publicity would help engagement. They all said in one way or another that they would be more engaged if there were more “in your face” advertisements. They expressed how they don’t see many clubs or events that promote nature conservation and that there is a disconnect between young adults and these activities. 

These results mean that there is a solution to this part of the problem. Since publicity is a factor in engagement and interest, then we can solve this by creating more events and activities. I’ve come to find out that having events, either big or small, can make a big difference in people’s knowledge and engagement. Whether it’s volunteer projects, guest speakers, fun activities, and other engaging events, it can reel people in and allow them to have the opportunity to learn about conservation and possibly get more involved in it on their own. 

The participants also talked about how there needs to be more flyers and posters in places that everyone can see them. After telling them about a Biology club, one person stated that they didn’t know there were any clubs like that and they believe a possible reason for that is because they are most likely advertising this club solely in Science East and West. This allows people with classes in those buildings to know about it, but everyone else is left out. So, when it comes to posters about nature conservation events, activities, etc., they need to be put in places such as dorm buildings, cougar village, the MUC, and just in other places that every student can see and not just a specific group.

My biggest takeaway from these interviews is that young adults are interested in nature conservation and know that it is important. However, there are factors that distract them from being as involved in it as they should be. Those factors are mental health, stress from school and similar activities, as well as the publicity of events regarding nature conservation. The first couple of factors are harder to solve since that can differ from person to person, but the publicity side of it can be solved by just putting in more effort to spread the word about these activities.