Mark Braboy
News Editor
Senior mass communications major, Taylor Bembery, hopes to ‘green’ Jackson State University with a unique plan for students to take care of the environment.
The Detroit, Mich. native is a semi-finalist in the Toyota Green Initiative ‘Green Your Campus” competition along with 16 other HBCU students. Bembery will present her proposal to JSU students during a Hotspot on Friday, April 4th on the Gibbs-Green Pedestrian Walkway.
The competition encourages students to create new, but simple ideas that can make an impact in their communities. Her plan is to encourage students who live on the main campus or live within walking distance to walk or ride bicycles as much as possible to class, events, or other locations to decrease the pollution from cars.
She wants students to pledge to join the campaign by only walking or biking at least three days out of the week.
“I was actually notified by one of my advisors, Ms. Shannon Tatum. She sent me an email with the information and said she thought I would be interested so I decided to apply for it. I found out about the competition three days before the deadline, I sent it in and Toyota approved it the next day,” said Bembery.
Following the approval, Bembery began to heavily promote her plan through social media and asked people to vote for it on the Toyota website to make it to the semi-finals.
Bembery’s plan was inspired from wanting to think outside the box after looking at her HBCU competitors and looking around her community. She noticed neither Jackson State nor the city of Jackson had any bike or walking lanes and felt it would also be a good way to address the state’s obesity problem.
Another one of her concerns was that Jackson State students who lived close or on campus drove their cars impractically around campus, creating further pollution and causing inconvenience to commuter students.
“It really doesn’t benefit them because number one, if you live a mile or two miles away from the university and it’s a nice day outside and you decide that you want to drive to campus, that messes up the whole parking dynamic of the university. If you notice, the commuter students have a hard time finding parking and it also causes students to waste gas. It’s nothing like getting outside and walking to class,” said Bembery.
Bembery’s ultimate goal is to implement a project called Tiger Trails. She hopes that if she wins the competition, it will give her a platform to raise funds and get help in order for her dreams to come to fruition.
“I want to bring walking and biking lanes to the university which will be called Tiger Trails. That’s my main goal; to bring a walking lane and a bike lane around the campus and it will have fluorescent lights around it. I had to implement a program that correlates with what I’m trying to bring to campus,” said Bembery.
If you would like to support Bembery’s goal, the final voting will take place from April 22 until May 1 at www.toyotagreen.com/contest/entries.php. The “Green Your Campus” event will be held on Friday, April 4th from 12 – 1p.m. on the Gibbs-Green Pedestrian Walkway.
JSU go green! (YouTube VIDEO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8wzvF_6naE&feature=youtu.be
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