I facilitate discussions and decision-making on the Operating Team. I will be in charge of planning the 2013 Winter Leadership Retreat.
PAST ROLES: Council Co-Chair, TGIF Coordinator
SCHOOL: CSU Los Angeles, 2013
MAJOR: Political Science
OTHER OCCUPATIONS: : Farm Fresh to You CSA
HOMETOWN: : Los Angeles, CA
About Me
Originally from the former Soviet Union republic of Uzbekistan, were I was exposed to the Aral Sea Crisis at age of 10, I moved to the States and settled in L.A. During my high school career, I became a social justice activist, raising awareness about the interconnected “-isms”. A documentary I saw in college inspired me to concentrate on the environmental justice movement. My passions lie in performing circus arts, multimedia arts, outdoor sports, and radical self-reliance/DIY projects. Let me emphasize DIY projects! If I had to pick one word to describe myself, it would be eclectic. I am currently earning my B.A. in Political Science at CSU Los Angeles.
How I Got Involved In CSSC
My first CSSC experience was a convergence attendee back in Spring of 2010 at UCSD. I found out about it in February of that year at the Real Food Challenge’s Strengthening the Roots Convergence.
The Area of Sustainability That Interests Me Most
Urban planning, co-operatives, up-cycling
Sustainability Projects I’ve Worked On
- Convergence Workshops (Soap Making, Urban Foraging, TGIF)
- Power-Shift 2011 (Trainer)
- CSULA Garden (Securing a Grant)
- End Coal Campaign @ CSULA
Hello,
My name is Amiya and I am writing to you to express my interest in working with CSSC. I am a member of the Boy Scouts of America and to achieve my Eagle Scout ranking, I must complete an Eagle Scout Service Project. This requires an affiliation with a community organization that could benefit from the project.
I found your website online and I think the work CSSC does is extremely important. I am lucky enough to have been raised by a mother who believes in organic, fresh produce and have been eating a healthy, sustainable diet my whole life. I am therefore very concerned about the state of our food and food production in this country—the use of pesticides, genetic engineering, and the availability of healthy alternatives for kids are all issues that worry me. Another troubling issue that affects our produce itself is the waning survival of the bees, not only locally or in the US, but on a global level. Without bees, one-third of the food we eat would be unable to grow.
I have therefore chosen to make a short documentary film on the importance of bees to maintaining a healthy ecology. In my film, which will be directed toward young people, I want to address the necessity of maintaining bees as a species in order to pollinate our fruits and vegetables, keeping them a viable food source. I also want to talk about the ways that local residents can pursue or at least support organic beekeeping even in our urban environments. I’m very excited about this project and I think there are still many people who do not know about the threat to the bee population and what can be done about it. This issue affects all of us and is integrally linked to our food production.
As I mentioned, I need to have an affiliation with a community organization and would be thrilled to have CSSC be that organization. Given your mission and the demographic you work with, I believe my documentary will be of interest and use to you. What this affiliation would mean for you is I would need a signature on a form that says you know about my proposal for the film and support it. You would later need to sign a second form that states that I have completed the project. Essentially, your signature would support my efforts in making the film and would require no further commitment of time or energy on your part. When I complete the film, I would like to give you copies that you can then distribute at your own discretion.
Please let me know if this would interest you. Thank you for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Amiya Brown