Third-year Communications major Nicole Garcia is teaching UC Davis that being eco-friendly can be done with style. As director of Aggie Reuse, she continues to demonstrate environmental awareness and community development with creativity and utmost zeal.
Year: Junior
Major: Communications
Hometown: Concord, CA
1. What is your position at Aggie Reuse and how has this experience impacted your life as a student?
My position is director of the unit. It was through this position that I realized there’s a lot that’s within my power and within the power of everyone around me to make a huge positive impact on our community. As director, I oversee the internal and external operations of the store, but mostly just make sure that everything is running really smoothly and that we’re progressing over the course of the year.
2. How does Aggie Reuse assist students who are career-driven and want to gain outside experience?
We have a lot of opportunities for people who are interested in sustainable design or in getting involved with our upcycling team. Our marketing team is pretty popular because a lot of people interested in marketing or communications tend to go that route. One of our bigger projects is organizing a lookbook, which involves production planning and photography. We have a lot of different positions that we offer to people who want to build their skillsets or meet others who are like-minded.
3. Unfortunately, a lot of people feel reluctant to use clothes that have already been worn. What would you say to people who feel this way?
I realized there’s a stigma around reusing things, especially water bottles or dishes. People feel a bit strange about using something that someone else has, but we’re trying to show that there’s this huge value in doing that. When you go out and buy new things all the time, you’re also probably going to throw those things away. Reusing helps the earth because you’re continuing that cycle of reuse by using these materials to their fullest potential.
4.What makes Aggie Reuse different from thrift shops like Goodwill?
Even though we have the thrift storefront, we have a lot of other aspects to our mission. We try to advocate for environmental awareness through our marketing team and upcycling and sustainable design team. We also have a huge creative aspect to our store. For example, all the decorations in our store are made by our interns from reused materials. We want to portray that there’s so much more to reusing that just recycling or thrifting.
5.What is your greatest accomplishment in college so far?
My biggest accomplishment is building up the store to where it is. When I started, it was really small. Over the course of last year, we’ve grown up to around forty people. We have a really strong management team that I’m really proud of and a whole bunch of interns that contribute a lot to this store.
6. What are you looking most forward to this academic year?
I’m looking most forward to seeing how the things I’ve been working on progress. I’m also involved in other clubs like Davis Women in Business, so I’m really interested to see what kind of effects we have on the community. I’m also reaching out and meeting more people around me to contribute to that mission and spread what I’m really passionate about.
7.What advice do you have for students at UCD in terms of academics or getting involved?
I would say that academics isn’t the whole picture of college and I really encourage people to break out of their comfort zone, because that’s what’s going to make you experience some really rewarding situations. I would say not to be afraid to get involved. The sooner you do, the more you can experience. Four years is a really short term or even two for some. I would say to make the most out of it.