Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team

“Green” Hand-me-downs

My sister, my role model, my friend. As youngsters we squabbled; as teens we shared clothes and accessories; and as adults we obsess over our daschund puppy back home with our parents. However, there is something my older sister taught me that gave me a new outlook on life and the future of our world: environmental sustainability.

I respect my sister because she does anything she possibly can to preserve the environment. She reads numerous books on sustainability and “living green,” and tells family and friends about how they, too, can help. At every family holiday she gathers glass bottles, cans and plastic containers and takes them to her home in State College to recycle them. She and her husband buy organic produce which helps to lessen the amount of pesticides that are used, which end up in the water supply. They use reusable shopping bags instead of plastic, compost kitchen and garden wastes, drink from reusable aluminum bottles instead of plastic disposable ones and carry fabric lunch bags instead of paper or plastic. They also reduced their junk mail to decrease logging and paper waste (The average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year. Check out www.41pounds.org).

The most profound steps my sister and her husband have taken together include building an Energy-Star home to diminish energy usage and donating money to a non-profit organization that plants trees and rebuilds rainforests to offset all the carbon dioxide that their wedding generated in August 2008.

So what does all of this have to do with my position on the Outreach team of EcoCAR? It shows my inspiration, my drive, for working for such a worthwhile competition. My sister has taught me the importance of caring for our planet earth. She inspired me to take as many actions as possible to preserve the environment. This is what motivated me to join EcoCAR. Now, I feel honored to be a part of a team that is spending three years designing and building a hybrid car to decrease emissions and increase gas mileage. I feel encouraged, motivated and inspired by each and every person on the team. It is extremely gratifying to be a part of EcoCAR, and I know I make my sister proud each and every day.