The Tarleton Environmental Society has been planting seeds of life at the Tarleton State University Stephenville campus.

“Every week, we go the garden so you would be able to get out in the sun and actually do stuff with your hands. We aren’t like doing stuff online so you wouldn’t have to be staring at a screen,” Julia Vargas, a freshman environmental science major and Tarleton Environmental Society Historian said. “It’s good for wanting to detach from your phone and to do hands-on things, and learning how to be sustainable in your own life.”

One way that the Tarleton Environmental Society practices sustainability is through composting soil at the Environmental Alliance Garden with leftover food scraps.

“So last semester, we made seed bombs, putting wildlife flower species into the seed bombs,” Vargas said. “We gave those out to people at the Fall Festival last semester, and we made our own paper this semester. So that was like recycling paper and we learned that you could recycle old paper up to six times which is crazy.”

Not only is the Tarleton Environmental Society teaching students creative ways to give back to their environment, but also to the community.

“I just like how we can talk about sustainability, and just learn new things together, or just provide some service to Tarleton through the garden,” Tarleton Environmental Society President, Sophia Aloise, said.

The produce grown in the Environmental Alliance garden goes directly to the Purple Pantry to feed students in need. In addition,  the Tarleton Environmental Society is helping the environment and the community  through the upcycling of clothing.

“I think my favorite event is our upcycling events. So we always bring like a sewing machine, I have tie-dye, and it’s just something that you can do to upcycle your clothes that you normally don’t wear instead of throwing them away,” Aloise said.

Tarleton Environmental Society President, Sophia Aloise, even alluded to the possibility of the organization starting a thrift store on campus, where students could sell their old clothes

But the message of sustainability does not just end with Tarleton State students.

“We were just teaching kids that were going around to recycle plastics. So we had this big trash like dumpster thing and his name was ‘Trashy’. He would throw up trash and the kids would like wanna go pick it up and throw it away or recycle the plastic,” historian, Julia Vargas, said.

Members of the Tarleton Environmental Society are not only finding different ways to reduce our waste, but they are also advocating for a better future here on Earth. 

“I want to be a doctor, my major has nothing to do with environmental science,” Tarleton Environmental Society Secretary, Vanessa Garcia, said. “But I really want a future where we’re not having as much pollution, protecting more of our Earth, and increasing more of our natural resources that we have.”

Garcia has made it her goal to join a new organization each semester and fell in love with the Tarleton Environmental Society.

“I’ve met new people and they’re all really cool people. Really supportive, and we all get along really well,” Garcia said.

If you would like to join this tight-knit community of Earth  advocates, dues are only $10 a semester and meetings are held every Monday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Honors classroom 1245A. The organization also meets every  Friday at 4 p.m. to maintain the Environmental Alliance Garden.

“I absolutely love the members so much because no matter what we’re doing, they’re always so excited to do anything, like they’re down for anything,” President Sophia Aloise said.

I guess you could say that members of the Tarleton Environmental Society are down-to-earth.