Gabrielle Kuba
Salve Regina University
Gabrielle Kuba, a third-year student at Salve Regina University, is a student leader most passionate about environmental issues. Encompassed in this are concerns about water shed, animal protection, and agricultural stresses. For the last three years, she has continually worked with Clean Ocean Access (COA) to push towards providing a future in cleaner and healthier marine environments. She actively takes part in beach cleanups throughout Rhode island and keeping records on the types of pollutants being found. She has also worked on multiple occasions at local gardens and parks in maintenance projects, aiming toward the idea of a cleaner and healthier environment for all. Accompanying these active projects also is her work with a local animal shelter in order to assist in the care for animals not just in the wild, but those who are one step closer to having a home.
Personal Statement
In high school, I got involved with my first campus clean-up through our Environmental Club. However, it wasn't until I got to college that I actually began to actively learn about the environment and the true impact we as humans have on the environment. The education that I received is what truly shaped my concerns, proving that education is the changing point of the world. I believe that no matter where you are as a sojourn, listening to any kind of information another can provide to you is the beginning to a better tomorrow. At Salve, I am a member of Mercy in Motion, Protect our Wildlife Club and Environment Club. In each of these clubs, I assist in educating our community about related concerns and organizing events in order to get members of the community actively involved and empowering them to feel deeply about certain causes.
This past January I had the opportunity to travel to Nicaragua for a service trip through Salve Regina. Taking part in this trip involved a few major projects that were provided to us through our time with Mustard Seed Communities. These projects included painting the window grates on each of the buildings, cleaning up the land around the property, and digging a ditch for garbage disposal. There are multiple buildings on the Mustard Seed property in Diriamba; these consist of a dining hall, a chapel, a missionary building, an office building, and several cottages for the residents. Each of these buildings have screens over the windows that needed to be repainted due to fading from the sunlight. After the screens were painted, we then went in with gold details on the windows. At the Mustard Seed facility in Managua, we were split into two groups; I specifically worked to clean up the property. We began on the street side and weeded the land, then moved along the side of the property. We cleaned up any debris on the side of the road or on the property and bagged it up. Although these projects seemed small to us, it brightened up their homes and enabled us to work not only together, but with the workers of the Mustard Seed Community.
