Month: September 2025

This year started well with the community partners and our group meetings. My colleagues and I started putting together the actions we wanted to do for our implementation plan individually this semester. After we expressed our thoughts to our specific Heartlands partner, Anna, and we asked for feedback. She did not have any at the moment. As time progresses and I collect data, this will change. My action for my implementation plan this semester is surveying the Class of 2029 who participated in community service for the Cougars in the Community event with our community partner Heartlands. This class will include the eighteen to nineteen-year-old age range. The age range my colleagues and I would like to reach as a team is eighteen through twenty-five. The students in my survey are not the entire age limit I would like to reach, but it’s a start to one age group at a time. My goal with this survey is to help find data and results that will give me information on how to keep young adults consistently involved in water conservation. I currently have the survey completed, but I am working on sending it out to get responses. I have to go through the Kimmel Engagement Hub to get permission to use the students’ names and email addresses for my research. I am confident about my plan. However, the only obstacle I think I would have during this project is getting the young adults to respond. Nevertheless, I believe through my survey I will be able to get an insight on the mindset and attitudes of young adults towards topics such as water conservation. After collecting data my team members and I plan to try to put together water conservation events the young adults would enjoy , based off their feedback from my survey. Additionally, I would encourage them to also attend Heartlands events for young adults. I would like to plan different kinds of events with water conservation in connection with other things that affect young adults such as mental health and more. I think this would vastly encourage young adults to consistently be involved because it is more than one thing connected that should be important to them for their future.

On a more personal note on how I been this semester within the classroom, I think it has been okay. The work has been going well it has not been anything I can not handle. I have turned in my assignments on time and communicating with my team well in class. However, I think my team and I could do a better job of communicating outside of the classroom. I think it is going this way for my team because we are indiviually working on our implentation plans, but we could still create a positivite environment by texting and checking on each other. I am most excited to see the outcome of all of this that my team and I plan to do. I am already proud to see how far we have came.

Throughout my first year, my team and I were able to gather data about young adults’ motivation and attitude levels towards working with water conservation. We were able to get this data by surveying and interviewing young adults ages eighteen through twenty-five at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  To further evolve our project this year, we are focusing more on implementing an action plan. For my personal project this semester towards our overall reseach I plan to create a survey to send to all the young adults, specifically freshman who participated in cougars in the community this year with our community partners Heartlands. My goal with this survey is to see what can make this type of actions CONSISTENT for young adults and what did they liked or disliked about their experience. This will help me to come up with an action plan and helpme  better understand the mindset of young adults towards topics like this . 

• I want to know more about what’s holding the young adults back 
• What would be the most effective approach or event to get them out of water conservation 
• I wonder if the young adults feel like they are not able to do anything due to their status 
• How can water conservation feel more like a team effort instead of just one young adult at a time 
• How can Heartlands involve us more in their mission 
• Are there time constraints due to academic or social commitments? 
• Do they feel like their individual contributions are too small to matter
• Are they just unaware of the importance of water-related issues?

 Understanding the barriers young adults face is important. My survey should include questions that directly address what’s holding them back.

Some obstacles that I am perceiving related to the work I plan to do are that I can conduct surveys, find data, and organize events, but how do I make it consistent? Consistency is my main goal within my research. I feel like recognition in some form will help with this. Would they respond better to tangible rewards, like community service hours or small scholarships, or to more inherent motivators, such as public recognition or the chance to develop leadership skills?  To let them know we appreciate the things they will be doing. Dr.Despain mentioned taking a psychological approach towards my survey.

  I can also consider what types of events or approaches would resonate most with young adults, such as interactive and engaging activities. Hosting a friendly competition between different dorms or student organizations to see who can reduce their water consumption the most? Collaborating with local businesses to offer discounts to students who participate in water conservation efforts could also be a great way to increase involvement within the age range because we are all college students trying to save money and the earth. Also, telling them to fix actions within their daily life can help. As a collective to take shorter showers and more could help tremendously.