Change has never been easy to enact. Change begins and is catalyzed by awareness, which has not been in shortage as of recent times. In following, the AHS Campus Environmentalist Club has taken up the mantle in leading to a healthier and more sustainable future, starting with today’s youth and tomorrow’s future. Their new Ethical Choices Program is a series of three presentations held in the Lecture Hall featuring distinguished keynote speakers and unique topics of the environment and modern agriculture to educate Arcadia students. Recently, on Feb. 24, the program completed its final meeting, focusing on the topic of factory farming. Environmentalist Club President senior Nicole Yang stated that the purpose of the lectures is to make sure “that people are aware of where their food comes from, and how it affects plants, animals, their environment, and them.”

Reception to the program has so far been notably positive, with participants having many thoughtful comments on the purpose and effectiveness of the program. In the aftermath of the lectures, junior Christian Chung stated, “I believe that the most important thing to take out of these lectures is about what we are going to do with the information we were given. To some students, the topics covered can be something that they’ve never seen before or have already covered in a science class. As a student currently enrolled in APES, a handful of the topics covered in the lecture weren’t really new or completely surprising to me.”

However, whether or not students are aware of these situations isn’t the key takeaway from all of it. Senior James Zhang said, “I believe that whenever you learn something, the important thing is to be able to do apply it to your own life. With the ethical choice lectures, it is whether or not we are going to choose to stay where we are or do something about it. Are you willing to reduce your meat consumption after everything you learned? Are you willing to inform others and help advocate towards saving the environment through what you learned yourself? Or are you willing to just spend even 5 minutes to sit down and consider what they said, regardless of your personal stance towards the environment?” These are just a few of a handful of questions that people should consider from the lectures and hopefully students can use them to make what they feel are the proper decisions for the future. As junior Jonathan Powers remarked, “this program [was effective in] spreading awareness to the problems created by the animal agriculture industry and leading students to make different eating choices in the future.”

The Ethical Choices Program has definitely brought a new light and perspective to the Arcadia campus. Now, all that is left is to go out and use it.