Edward Doan, of Orange, traveled to San Francisco June 25-29 to participate in “Partners in the Parks–Golden Gate National Recreation Area,” with fellow Lamar University honor students, Luke Nguyen and Naomi Raczkovi, joining nine other students from across the country. The experience was co-sponsored by the National Collegiate Honors Council and Tacoma Community College.
The trip was funded through a $1,000 grant from the Lamar University’s Reaud Honors College, where Doan, Nguyen and Raczkovi are active participants.
Doan, a junior majoring in chemical engineering, said, “The whole idea behind Partners in the Parks is to engage undergraduate students into understanding the relevance of national parks as well as the correlation to what we’re learning in our classes.” While in San Francisco they “studied the relationship and effects of the national parks on the growth of the city of San Francisco, as well as how San Francisco grew around the various parks that were set aside.”
The trip provided visits to many places including the Maritime National Historic Park, Muir Woods National Monument, Marin Headlands, Alcatraz Island and the Sutro Baths. They were also able to visit a nuclear station for the Cold War.
In Muir Woods they learned that, “the ancient Redwood trees can grow up to nearly 400 feet tall and be older than 2000 years,” and contain enough potential lumber to build a four- or five-bedroom house.
The students participated in two service projects, one in Muir Woods, and the other on Alcatraz Island. In Muir Woods, they “cleared out an area infested with forget-me-nots, an invasive species that poses a threat to the native plants of these woods.” On Alcatraz Island, the group participated in recycling compost and planting. The group also participated in an exercise to “discuss the ramifications of creating a city that is currently serving as a national park.”
The trip participants took positions either as developers looking for potential housing markets, or local citizens and ecologists wanting to preserve the area. Doan realized that the argument isn’t as black and white as it may seem. “The argument for the developers was that, preserving land is important, but isn’t helping and giving the people a place to stay more important? And the counter-argument was the nature aspect and would the housing really be affordable considering San Francisco’s median income?”
Doan said, “My favorite part of that trip would have to be seeing how an entire city lives so drastically different from where I’m from, yet the functionality of both places is still the same.”
“There’s always more than what meets the eye,” he said. “Whenever a situation presents itself there’s always going to be something you fail to consider. So, it’s always important to discuss it with a group of people, especially with groups of people that have different perspectives than your own. When you do that, you can prod at something at more angles and you’re able to see the situation in its entirety.”
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