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Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar

Leandra Reynoso-Valdez

Capstone Spring 22

POINTS TOTAL

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  • 0 THIS WEEK
  • 56 TOTAL

Leandra's actions

Visions of Sustainability

Eco-friendly Gardening

I will plant native species, landscape with water-efficient plants, and use eco-friendly fertilizers.

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Consumption and Economy

Watch a Documentary

I will watch one of the films suggested in the additional resources and discuss it with friends or family.

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Transportation

Walk Instead

I will walk 3 mile(s) each day this week instead of driving and avoid sending up to 18.76 lbs of CO2 into Earth's atmosphere.

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Community

Meet My Neighbors

I will meet 2 new neighbor(s) this week.

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Water

Use Reusable Bottles

I will use a reusable bottle and stop purchasing bottled water, saving 2 disposable plastic bottle(s) each day this week.

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Food

Watch a Documentary

I will watch a documentary film about food with family and friends and talk about what we learned.

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Ecological Principles

Reduce My Footprint

I will calculate my ecological footprint and talk with my family or roommates about way we can reduce our negative enviromental impact.

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A Call to Sustainability

Explore My Area

I will explore at least one new hiking trail or nature walk in my area.

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Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?


  • Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar
    Leandra Reynoso-Valdez 5/24/2022 3:56 AM
    Hey everyone, for this week I decided to focus on eco-friendly gardening. Since my final project is on growing vegetables this week's challenge helped me focus on gardening. I have been growing my food garden from food scraps and they have developed roots so I decided to plant them in pots with soil to promote even more future growth. I went to my grandma's house to plant my vegetables in pots so she could see them. I really enjoyed spending time with my grandma while I was planting my vegetables outside in the nice weather. I think I did pretty good planting the vegetables with my grandma's help but I did notice that my green lettuce is starting to die. I also planted a snake plant into a pot to put in my room. The skill of learning how to garden and plant I think is very beneficial. This also made me think of the video we watched called Greening the Ghetto and how important it is for everyone to be able to have access to healthy food. Creating my own food garden and getting involved in community gardens is something I want to do in the future. 


  • Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar
    Leandra Reynoso-Valdez 5/17/2022 12:25 AM
    Hey everyone, for this week I decided to watch an episode called Makeup Mayhem on the show Broken that is available on Netflix. The show is about consumerism in new marketing products that may not actually be the best products for consumers. The beauty industry is a very high one in marketing new products, especially on social media. I learned that there are counterfeit cosmetics which is a big marketing business that does not sell the best formula in makeup products. People can get rashes and infections from counterfeit cosmetic products because of the harmful formulas in them. People have been taking to social media to review cosmetic products which have helped push companies to create better product formulas. Beauty influencers are a big part of the beauty industry and create inclusivity as makeup being for everyone. Also using an influencer for beauty brands creates more demand for products. From the documentary, Khue Nong states, “Seeing those name brands all other your feed they get stuck in your head you want to look that way you see that look and you think that's what I have to use, so if you can buy something that says Kylie lip kit its a status point it says something about you, it says that you can afford it and you take your looks seriously and you’re using what everybody else does.” This statement reminded me of a conversation we had in class about keeping up with new products which can make it difficult to change consumer culture. 


    • Vanessa Martinez's avatar
      Vanessa Martinez 5/19/2022 9:44 AM
      Hey Leandra, sounds like you've learned a lot from this documentary. It is a topic that I find interesting as well. I will definitely be checking this out on Netflix. Thanks for the post!

  • Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar
    Leandra Reynoso-Valdez 5/11/2022 11:12 PM
    Hi everyone, for this week's eco-challenge I decided to walk to the local places I needed to go. I wanted to walk to places this week because I noticed that I use my car when driving somewhere close by. This week I walked to my local library to do homework and I live close by so it was beneficial. I also walked to the park with my mom and brother to get some exercise. I often drive to the library or the park but this week's challenge had me thinking that it would be better to walk since the locations are not very far. Walking this week reminded me of our assignment to go out and enjoy nature. While I was walking I noticed a lot of new buildings being built and the people in my community which I would not have really noticed if I was driving. This also reminded me of our reading on transportation and how the different forms of transportation we use can affect the way we interact and connect with our community. Walking this week definitely benefited my mental and physical health. I faced some obstacles in the sense that I got kind of tired while walking to the locations I needed to go but that to me means that I need to walk more often. 


  • Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar
    Leandra Reynoso-Valdez 5/05/2022 1:12 AM
    Hi everyone, this week I decided to go around and meet some of my neighbors. I am somewhat familiar with my neighbors close by and I wave to them sometimes but I haven’t actually met them. I like to go for walks with my dog around my neighborhood and when I was out for a walk I saw my neighbor across the street tending to his garden. I said hi and introduced myself and asked about his garden. It was a really nice conversation that I hope to continue having conversations with my neighbor across the street from me more often. On my walk I continued to say hi to my neighbors and introduce myself so at least they know who I am and I know who they are to help continue conversations or friendships in the future. At first it was difficult for me to say hi and introduce myself to my neighbors because I am really shy but it ended up being very beneficial because now I feel closer to my neighbors. I really want to push myself to start conversations with my neighbors more often and build connections with them. 


  • Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar
    Leandra Reynoso-Valdez 4/25/2022 6:02 PM
    Hi everyone, this week I am going to be using a reusable water bottle. I chose this challenge because my family and I do have the bad habit of buying plastic water bottles from the store. I feel the main reason me and my family buy plastic water bottles is because it is easy and accessible “clean” water to drink. This made me think about the conversation we had in class about the Why Bother article. People don’t really bother when materials are cheap and accessible. I have been trying to use reusable water bottles more especially when I go to places like school because there are water filters accessible to us. I don’t think the tap water at my house is very bad and I have been refilling my reusable water bottle with that but I know my family will not drink it. This has made me think about investing in water filters for my house so my family and I do not purchase any more plastic water bottles. Using a reusable water bottle at home has helped me cut the amount of plastic water bottles I use and has made me realize how much I use every day. 


    • Alexa Brattain's avatar
      Alexa Brattain 4/26/2022 3:17 PM
      Good for you!! Have you tried using a Brita filter? They're fairly cheap and at most grocery stores. If you are curious about learning what's in your tap water, you can go to https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/system. I just watched a short video about plastic water bottles and learned that the water is not necessarily better for you compared to regular tap water. Thank you for helping reduce plastic waste!

  • Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar
    Leandra Reynoso-Valdez 4/20/2022 12:21 AM
    Hey everyone, for this week I decided to watch an episode called “Fast Food” on the show History 101 that is available on Netflix. I have always wanted to watch this show, particularly the episode on fast food because I feel like I eat too much fast food. I learned that there are almost a quarter of a million fast-food restaurants in the U.S. alone. The big fast-food chains we know today like McDonald's, In- N-Out, KFC, Burger King, and Pizza Hut opened up in the 1940s and 1950s. McDonald’s in particular has opened up almost 38,000 restaurants worldwide. The documentary talked about how in the 1950s 12% of people were obese and by 1994 23% of people have become obese due to fast food. This can cause a lot of risk factors to our health in developing diabetes and cancer. The food from fast-food chains has also grown bigger because a burger in the 1950s was 3.9 ounces and now a burger is 12 ounces. When the 2000s hit fast food industries notice the health problem and have started to come up with healthier options. When McDonald’s put apple slices on their menu it became 10% of sliced apples sold in America. This made me think about the demand for food production and pesticides in the fruit we talked about in class. Children of our generation can have shorter life spans than their parents because of the amount of unhealthy food consumed. Our greenhouse gas emissions have gone up substantially due to livestock for beef production and waste production as well due to fast food packaging. 


    • Adrionna Silva's avatar
      Adrionna Silva 4/20/2022 1:28 PM
      This show seems super interesting! I also love fast food even though I know how bad it is. I think it is okay to have every once in a while. The size difference in the burgers is shocking. It seems like we need to eat more than people did back then. Another thing I have noticed about Mcdonalds food portions over the years is how much they have shrunk the fry size. The small fries now is the same size as the happy meal fries I would get as a kid. I guess it is good they cut down on the portions but what I find frustrating is how they raised the prices even though we do not get as much food.

  • Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar
    Leandra Reynoso-Valdez 4/13/2022 10:34 PM
    Hi everyone, I decided to do the challenge of reducing my footprint. I calculated my ecological footprint and it was 7 and my carbon footprint was 11.6. This really made me think more about my actions and how I can reduce my ecological footprint. I also talked to my family about ways we can reduce the negative impact we have on the environment. I specifically talked to them about lighting in the house and how we need to turn off the lights we are not using. I try not to turn on the lights in the house until it is getting dark outside and instead use candles as you can see from the picture below. My family and I try to use natural light from outside as much as possible. I also talked to them about not turning the heater on until it's time to go to sleep. I talked to them about water use and how it is important to turn the water off when we are not using it. For example, the water does not need to be on the whole time someone is brushing their teeth. I talked to them about topics I have learned in class like zero waste which can be very difficult at first but starting to look at the way we shop or buy food is an important step. I really enjoyed having these conversations with my family because even though some ideas were difficult to get through to them they did agree that we need to think more about our actions in relation to the environment. 


  • Leandra Reynoso-Valdez's avatar
    Leandra Reynoso-Valdez 4/06/2022 10:23 PM
    Hi everyone, for my eco-challenge this week I decided to explore a new area. My grandma lives out in Monitor so while I was visiting her we decided to go for a walk. I have never really explored walking around Monitor and always wanted to and my grandma talked about the places she and her siblings used to go as kids. She talked to me about her past growing up while we walked and enjoyed the nature around us. I don’t think we realized how far we ended up walking because of the great conversation we were having but we had to find our way back home which was a little difficult because we were both tired. My grandma talked to me about how much has changed since she was a kid and all the roads and cars there are now. She said before her sisters and she could ride bikes around and not worry so much about cars but now it is different. I gained a lot of perspective from my grandma about how much has changed over time, especially in terms of transportation that is harmful to our environment. 


    • Yevelina Torgonskiy's avatar
      Yevelina Torgonskiy 4/09/2022 7:04 PM
      Hello! I think it's great to connect with older generations to learn how much local areas have changed. It helps show how fast natural areas have changed, but also how they could be restored if people chose to change their habits. 

    • Edaena Maldonado-Vizueth's avatar
      Edaena Maldonado-Vizueth 4/06/2022 11:48 PM
      Thank you for sharing your walk with your grandma with all of us! It was heartwarming to hear about it, and learn a little bit about what your grandma shared. The landscape looks beautiful; it encourages me to socialize and enjoy the earth with a loved one too.