Earth Day river cleanup sparks SCS community action and environmental reflection – The Hoya

Students from the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies (SCS) celebrated Soil Day by participating a Clean Waterways Cleanup event at Kenilworth Park near the Anacostia River in Washington, DC, April 20.

The cleanup started a9:00 am. with a speech outlining the purpose of the event and key safety measures. The students then walked through the park for an hour and a half collecting litter, followed by another hour of sorting. The students focused on removing litter and increasing its management Anacostia and being involved in the watershed ecosystem.

SCS students colcollaborated with other organizations for this event, including the Anacostia River rangersa team dedicated to protecting and restoring the Anacostia River. Datum their experience in organizing similar events, the River rangers provided guidance and support to the students.

Nikhil Moondra (SCS ’24), one student who attended the event said his motivation to participate in the river cleanup was driven by a practical commitment to sustainability, an opportunity he doesn’t often encounter in his real estate work.

“If you work in the real estate sector, you are very indirectly concerned with sustainability,” Maandra wrnote to The Hoya. “This comes in the form of working with buildings and making sure they are Energy Star certified, LEED certified or conducting solar analyzes and other energy initiatives. I wanted to get out there and do something that was more direct and engaging.”

Keenan Courtland, the event’s program manager, said the cleanup was tailored to better accommodate students pursuing a real estate diploma with the aim of developing their understanding of their local community.

“Many of our students are at different stages of their careers and want to develop and grow, especially in… DCbut also in other parts of the country,” Courtland told The HoYes. “I already knew about it in my previous role Anacostia river ranger and found this to be one of the more direct links to their work – recognizing that to develop and improve the community you must first start contributing and cleaning up.”

Shayna Musteea program manager involved in organizing the event said that despite the relatively small scale of the event, it had a significant positive impact.

‘Sustainable events don’t have to be big to make a difference’ Colored wrote to De Hoya. “Participating and organizing events similar to cleaning up the Anacostia River demonstrates the accessibility of these practices. Adopting methods that seem seemingly unimportant can quickly become an involuntary habit and contribute to broader conservation efforts.”

Maandra also said it was encouraging to connect with colleagues who shared his passion for environmental conservation.

“I think the most rewarding part of the experience was interacting with like-minded people and talking to them about wanting to make a difference, even if just in a small way,” Maandra wrote.

Hofland said he was concerned about the limited awareness within the organization Georgetown community about their impact on the environment, highlighting the urgent need for greater care and stewardship of our environment.

“I feel like it’s a very difficult time in our ecosystem to be in such a privileged place, but know that in some ways our waterways are directly suffering from the city’s success,” Hofland said. “So this event, I think, obviously helped show that DC is not as urban as we want to believe – that there are parks, that there are different places for people to be and that they deserve to be cleaned and maintained. It really shows you how little people do to maintain cities.”

“I believe this event helps people see that we live in a very large estuary, and not just an urban environment with parks, rivers and other things,” Hofland added. “And we must do as much for them as we do for ourselves.”