My name is Jake Gelhard and I am currently in HBA 1 and plan on doing a dual degree with electrical engineering. I have always been interested in science and technology and hope to do something in this field to help make the world more sustainable. My HBA degree will help me to use my technical knowledge and really apply it to something that will improve a current process to make it more sustainable for the future. Outside of school I spend a lot of time playing sports and going to the gym.
Additional Information
Personal Definition of Sustainability
Sustainability to me means making the world a place that our generation and future generations will be able to live in comfortably and enjoy all of the things that are currently available to us. It can cover a lot of different areas such as environmental, corporate, social, etc. For environmental sustainability it means doing things to help reduce pollution, greenhouse gases, global warming and help to keep the natural areas we have intact. The state of the environment is constantly declining and it is extremely important to ensure that we do whatever we can in order to help stop the damage we are doing and reverse what has already been done. Social responsibility includes a lot of different things but to me it mainly means helping out those who are less fortunate. Many people all over the world are living in poverty and do not have the basic necessities they need to live. These people should be able to live without having to worry about how they will get food or water. Corporate sustainability means sourcing and producing products ethically while ensuring the business stays alive.
Sustainability-in-Action
I have been involved in several sustainability projects in the last few years. The past two summers I have worked on solar farms which help contribute to environmental sustainability as they are a source of renewable energy. Through this experience I was able to learn a lot about the solar industry as well as the renewable energy industry, since many of the people I worked with had been on other projects in fields such as wind energy. I was able to gain a lot of insight into what it took to develop environmentally sustainable solutions. It also led me to develop a real interest into the renewable sector and is a major reason that I want to pursue a career in this field in the future. Another sustainable project I was part of was the Dominican Republic Educational and Medical Support (D.R.E.A.M.S) trip. I was able to travel to a mountain village in the Dominican Republic and build houses for people there. This was a great experience and I was able to see how other parts of the world lived and survived without the luxuries that we take for granted.
