I get going I just want to ask a few
people in the front when I say the word
Millennials what comes like what races
okay anybody over here technology yeah
curious yeah very good again well when I
was a kid I was always told that
Millennials were going to be the ones to
solve the world’s problems
and now I hear that the generations
before mine are cashing in they want to
know what we’re up to
and if we’re even doing anything well I
can’t promise anything and I I can’t say
for certain if the world is doomed or
not when they’re gone but I can’t
promise that Millennials are everything
I have heard idealistic ambitious
innovative dreamers entitled lazy and
clueless ah how can you be ambitious if
you’re lazy and how can you be
innovative yet clueless let me explain
Millennials have two types of people
those who have brilliant ideas but watch
Life go by on Netflix and those who have
brilliant ideas but go chase them every
single day this monile strives to be a
part of that latter half five years ago
today I left an athletic and academic
scholarship behind at a university to go
home and work in a hospital yes yes I
turns out that nursing and medicine is
nothing that TV told me it was going to
spent a year depressed trying to figure
out what I really wanted and then how I
was going to move forward with what I
wanted then one morning my mother found
me sobbing in the shower and she just
asked what’s wrong and I was like you
know what mom I’m just just not happy
and she already knew so I was like just
blurted out as as fast as I could
I don’t want to be a nurse anymore and I
want to move to Florida and while she
has spent years convincing me of just on
how good of a nurse I was gonna be she
didn’t question me for a second a month
later I was on my journey to Florida
with my parents by my side and they
bought me an apartment and then there I
was sat in that apartment alone with my
cat as they headed back to Michigan a
few months went by along with the summer
and I started classes here
y’all my entire life changed I met so
many people and I was studying what I
wanted environmental science and the
proper policy to sustain it fast-forward
through many trials and tribulations to
about the past two years or so but let’s
clear that up first again
but trials and tribulations I mean
organic chemistry calculus some of you
may know I’m still trying to figure that
I met some of the most passionate people
and they’re my closest friends now but
it didn’t meet them until about April of
last year when I joined something called
the student green energy Fund also known
here on campus as suggesting Sujatha I
was involved in the passing and politics
of several projects went on to develop
one of my own all the way to the city
was elected project proposal manager and
then invited on a committee with likes
with sustainable directors from Duke
Energy the city and a few key people
from USFSP within two meetings I went
from listening in and just trying to
feverishly write notes like I was in
second grade again because I was
surrounded by brilliant people yell I
went from two meetings of being a shy
kid to headlining that committee and
presenting and pitching a project to the
city and then the sewage crisis happened
and the world stopped but I capitalized
two weeks after the most recent dump-off
albert wooden was also that meeting with
that community that I was supposed to
pitch my proposal to the city and I
wanted them to hear it so bad that I put
my heart into it and while the city may
not have fully took into consideration
my solution
they used it I put a personal piece into
that this is my best friend she obtained
Vibrio a flesh-eating bacteria while
swimming and shoot sewage related spills
on her Labor Day weekend at a beach but
she didn’t know she didn’t know because
it wasn’t publicized that beach was full
of sewage so I used it put it in my
presentation in the whole room stop
while my proposal may not have been
chosen specifically it helped provoke
the city to reevaluate Albert witted as
a possibility along with the entire
County’s sewage system on March 12th and
I’ll see appropriation of 341 million
dollars to fix the system for me that
was a win and for the city his wall
y’all feel really blessed to live in a
city who stands their problems in the
face and then takes on solutions from an
undergraduate student at a university I
wanted to stem so badly to hear it and
they did but enough about me let’s talk
about my French for a bit we’ll start
with those on the sajama d together we
have put solar on top of the parking
structure some of you may have parked in
that structure that structure is Net
Zero because of the solar array and has
saved the University a monetary invoice
for those who don’t know that Sophia on
the far left there she’s our Chancellor
she’s one of the smartest people I know
and she’s supportive of us that’s her
when we put that solar array on the
grade of Duke Energy we have another 40
kilowatts on the way above the Pointer
parking lot some of me some of you may
have parked in that parking lot already
and not been authorized but let me
explain something is pretty cool those
divots that you see in the medians are
not just someone’s mistake they’re
called rain gardens they collect water
from that runoff from the lot and filter
it before it gets back into the aquifer
and then into your water bottle pretty
for those who see that white building in
the back it’s called the pointer laughs
we’re pushing that building to be LEED
Platinum which will be the second of its
kind in the state of Florida we have
successfully pushed the College of
Business to LEED Gold even though it’s
our glass box in South Florida way to
get creative that one came down to like
the native plants that we planted
outside and the type of cleaning
supplies we use to clean that building
and how much and what type of recycling
we’ve put inside the building versus
outside the building but we did it in
December of 2016 the Sierra Club hosted
a public press conference in celebration
to celebrate the city in the
university’s combined commitment to each
other and our respective climate action
plans that reminds me as students we
successfully collected data for wrote
and then pushed the Chancellor to sign
the university’s first climate action
plan in which we have set the university
to be carbon neutral by 2050 pretty
ambitious we then coupled that with the
city’s first real climate action plan
was set targets at that very ceremony
after that press conference so Jeff was
awarded a plaque of recognition from the
Sierra Club for being innovators in our
own community I thought that was pretty
cool we have successfully installed
several water bottle refilling on campus
which are highly desired and for those
who don’t know to this date have saved
about five hundred thousand plastic
water bottles from entering landfills
and then here’s the the worst part some
poor unexpected third-world countries
water systems that includes drinking
water because plastic knows no bounds we
have also passed a bike share program
recently just recently within the past
two weeks that would be free to faculty
staff and students to help meet our 2020
transportation goals that we committed
to y’all this just scratches the surface
soon and energy management system will
be installed campus-wide
so that we will be able to see each
buildings consumption in inefficiencies
so that we will know exactly what to
target and what we should fix and even
if we’re lucky how to fix it but that’s
where our mind comes in so I just want
to thank our student search committee
who paid for that EMS system and for
admin for supporting us on that one
because it’s not been an easy process
I’m sure at this point you’re kind of
wondering like great but do we see any
of this money back are we just investing
because we want to be green I was just
investing to be stewards of our own
environment or just investing because in
30 years
we may be underwater great question
signed officially four weeks ago it all
goes into our green involving fund from
here on out that revolving fund will
capture project return and I want to
thank the student search committee who
thought of it believed in it and then
pushed the University’s CFO to sign it I
can’t wait to use it
and I’m sure the University as well it’s
going to thank you guys do so one my
thank you to our admin who helped us our
Chancellor Sophia for believing in
innovative dreamers who just had
mission into our city partners namely
Duke Energy in the city sustainable
director for jumping on our train and
supporting us my my friends and I we
don’t get paid for any of this we don’t
get paid we just show up weekly with a
collective goal of sparking positive
change through sustainability and the
mission to change the world that being
said I want to highlight one last person
you all might know who this is
this is Lexie Ferguson Lexi’s graduating
in the summer with the same degree as me
she’s the chair of suggest and she does
it without a dime from writing up
purchase order after purchase order
expenditure request form after
expenditure request form making weekly
agendas with goals and targets that she
then follows up on hounds our budget
guards because lord knows it’s not just
us in charge of that budget pushes us in
the directions of our different goals
and aspirations make sure each and every
one of us has heard at every meeting all
while going to school full-time and
working two jobs so I just want to leave
y’all with like a few questions of my
own are millenials still that same lazy
entitled and clueless generation or are
we innovative dreamers who are ambitious
and driven can you believe the change
and positive impact that ten people have
been able to spark here’s the best part
here’s my favorite part they’re my
friends you’re all my closest friends at
that we do everything together and I’m
sure someday it’s going to come back to
bite us but we do everything together
and I feel lucky I surround myself daily
with brilliant people who just want to
change
the world they don’t get paid for it we
just love it and so do every kid
deep down inside who has ever told that
their dream was just too far-fetched
that the over standardization of the
current system limits their creativity
into every kid who will be told that
they cannot achieve dream innovate and
achieve because the world needs you we
have some serious problems to solve
thank you all for coming out it was an
absolute honor I fulfilled the dream
tonight thank you [Applause]