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The World We Dare to Imagine Pt. 3

VERT LA — Fixing Food Deserts by Transforming Buildings into Farms VERT LA is an agri-tech organization with a mission to bring vertical farming to the communities that need it most—starting right here in Los Angeles. Our name reflects our origins, use of vertical farming technology, and green, a color of health, freshness, and nature. After living in a small, affluent, white town in rural-suburban New Jersey for 18 straight years, spending the last three years of my life living in the heart of South Central LA really opened my eyes to issues affecting large and lower income urban communities. One of my most cherished memories of living in a semi-rural area was the copious amounts of local farms, orchards, and farm-fresh produce. After taking a class my freshman year which discussed some of the power and socio-economic issues that rise out of urban living and can be seen right off of USC campus, I learned about the huge societal issue food deserts represent. The National Center for Bio...
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World We Dare to Imagine 1

"Today we are redefining the geography of community and accepting shared accountability for common human values. We have the chance to extend the notion that all men are created equal to every human being on the planet. This will require global structures and products we are only beginning to imagine.... Each of us in his or her own way can contribute something by thinking -- and acting -- like a true global citizen. We have only one world for all of us on earth, and the future really is ours to create, in a world we dare to imagine together." I am lucky to have lived a good life, always having enough food on the table, time to spend with my family, a great town and community to grow up in, the ability to travel and have leisure time, and of course, getting to experience the amazing education I've had all the way from pre-school to my current life at USC. It is also because of this very privilege that I have been able to open my eyes and recognize the resources that I hav...
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Random Post 2

 End of Pandemic Hope (or at least, hopefully the end) Last night, after a call with my boss at my internship, I looked at our schedule of articles we are releasing for the next few weeks and realized that article assignments were moving onto a different Google sheet for Q2. " Damn ," I thought, " it's really April already... jeez. That means that classes end this month, which also means that this school year more-or-less ends this month, and that my junior year is coming to a close. Alongside this realization, I also got my second COVID-19 vaccine dose last week. The side effects absolutely wrecked me and had me achey and bedridden with a 101 degree fever for a day and a half, but through it all I was smiling inside because I was finally fully vaccinated. For the entire pandemic, I always imagined I'd get vaccinated over the summer because I had zero trust in our government's ability to distribute the vaccine efficiently, and although our vaccination system...
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Book 2 Post 2

As a recap, I decided to read Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder for my second book. I chose to read it because I thought it both an extremely interesting perspective and structure for an author to take on (the writing of this book and what it discusses was spurred by a near-death hospital stay and experience from the author himself), and also thought it was a timely collection of thoughts to read in light of the recently-passed 1 year anniversary of when COVID-19 kicked us all off of campus and out of in-person classes and sent many people home to work remotely. As I discussed in my last post, even the introduction and first few chapters made me reflect more upon my mortality and how my privilege has shaped my view on my own health as well as healthcare in general, and after nearly finishing the book (I definitely had to speed read it a bit because of how crazy school has been, but want to go back and reread certain sections), I can definitely say ...
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Book 2 Post 1

For my book 2, I chose to read Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder. Overall, the book is a reflective diary from the author, who suddenly fell gravely ill and had to wait for hours in an emergency room before even getting the chance to be correctly diagnosed and sent into surgery. During his experiences barely holding onto his life, he realized and reflected upon the value of health in America, as well as its sheer fragility and how his near-death hospital experience taught him what important lessons we need to know to survive in this world well. In light of the pandemic, I really wanted to read this, as I feel like my belief in the American healthcare system severely dwindled over the past year and along with it, my philosophies on my own health, wellness, and mortality in this world (not to get dark, haha). After reading the first few chapters, my reflection on COVID-19 and the American healthcare only increased. Unlike some of my friends, I think I...
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Random Post 1

A Friday Afternoon Adventure This week felt like a long one, to say the least. Even though I didn’t have any major assignments due or any midterms, I took it upon myself to get ahead on work for my current job and also get to applying to summer internships as well. Late Thursday night, I got a surprise Slack message from my boss-- “No meeting tomorrow! Have a good weekend :-)”--and instantly felt a warm feeling wash over my body. No more work on Friday meant I could sleep in, and since I had no other scheduled obligations, I could spend my day relaxing however I wanted to. So, I woke up at a languid 12:15 pm, checked my phone, and saw that my roommate had texted me 10 minutes earlier and asked if I wanted to go to Spoon by H with her--a beloved LA restaurant located in Koreatown that sadly announced on Monday that it was closing this week after not being able to hold itself up any longer from the effects of the pandemic. After the restaurant announced the news on their Instagram, hoard...
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Book 1 Post 2

 As I touched on in my previous post, I chose to read American Like Me by America Fererra because I was really interested in hearing about many of the personal and childhood experiences of some of my favorite public figures who also grew up in immigrant households, just like I did. I have to say, even after reading the first five chapters of the book (which included essays from America Fererra herself, Reshma Saujani, Al Madrigal, Jenny Zhang, and Bambadjan Bamba) in just one evening, I was extremely satisfied with the book choice that I made, as I found each of the stories and essays unique despite each talking on the same topic. I loved it so much that I finished reading it in just 2 days, and feel like I may read this book once again in a few months. Out of all of the stories, I think I liked Anna Akana’s the most (even though, once again, they were all amazing). I actually watched her Youtube videos religiously from the ages of 13-16, and as a young, confident, accomplished, an...
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