As part of the Green City week celebration, Her Campus City London went to interview people in campus who are doing their bit in making the world a better place through their own green initiatives.
One of our environment-friendly stars is Christina Katsouli. This 19 year-old lass studying Management is also the new proud leader of Enactus Society’s HydroVillage team. Let’s find out more about how she’s been involved in green projects!
Christina, tell us more about this project and your aims as a team. HydroVillage is a project that will introduce plant growing systems into areas in the world affected by soil problems. Beneficiaries will be able to sustain themselves and their families by crop production, and we will also teach them basic entrepreneurial skills so that they will ble able to launch their own businesses. This project utilises hydroponic, which involves growing plants without using soil, but instead a mixture of small water amounts and nutrients. In the long run, HydroVillage intends to have multiple international self-sustainable implementations.
What encouraged you to become a Green Dragon Leader? Making a small positive change while acquiring help by the experts of the Green Dragons board were the catalysts that encouraged me in joining the scheme.
Can you tell us what HydroVillage achieved last year and what are you expecting to do more this year? Last year was essential to understand the full complexity of the issue we want to face and set a base of what we will be doing this year. We have tried hydroponic installations, communicated with charities and conducted needs assessment to proceed with project implementation both locally and internationally. We were a team of aspiring people ready to tackle poverty and malnutrition. Along the way, many things went wrong but we didn’t give up. System testing over the summer holidays and constant improvement to fill most of our team’s missing gaps were conducted. Hence, now we are in a better place to see our project taking off this year. We are currently setting new partners that will bring us closer to the beneficiaries and trips to Africa are already in our agenda. Embracing the wisdom stemming from last year’s wrongs and rights, we are committed to implement a change this year.
Why should students get involved with HydroVillage or other similar kinds of sustainability projects? I strongly believe that all students even in the early phase of their academic life should ask themselves the following question: “What have I achieved using the opportunities existing in my university that I would not be able to do elsewhere?”. A degree is not solely about the lectures, tutorials and tests. For me, in this part of life, it is all about building bridges and connections, setting goals and actively getting involved. City University is a wonderful nest of extracurricular activities which can eventually lead students to apply in practice what they have learnt in classrooms, get productive, be passionate and dare to discover new interests and facets of themselves. Projects such as this build values, create friends and memories, and will be the source of stories you will be proud of after your university circle has come to an end.
That’s some great advice for your fellow students! How about any other green activities you are participating outside of City? Well, turns out I’ve been quite in a green mode lately! Assisted by some old high school mates we have been collectively trying to give a go at our own start-up at producing a smart automated irrigation system designed to eliminate water wastage in gardening and other agricultural activities.
That’s great to hear! I wish you luck on that project. To end the interview, I want to ask you how does this passion affects and applies to your life? Part of my Management degree studies exposed me to the essential function of CSR practices in the business world. This intrigued my perception about going green. We should all keep in mind that there are mutual, two-way connections between people or organisations and the external environment. One can’t live without the other. Hence, we must find an equilibrium and coexist. This idea of a trade off between the two “parties” follows me in my daily routine… From switching off the lights more frequently to building green sustainable hydroponic units, we can all fit somewhere between the “green” spectrum at the degree we desire.