words from serena

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...

"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...

 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...