Biography

Jessica Barragan

        Hello everyone, let me start off my introducing myself, my name is Jessica Barragan and I am a student at Riverside City College. The main purpose behind my blog is for my Biology-36 Environmental Science class, but first here is a brief biography about myself.

          I was born in Monterey Park, California and I lived the first 10 years of my life in Pomona, California. Then I moved to Riverside, which is also where I currently reside. I started as a Biochemistry major, but I changed it to Food and Nutrition Sciences and I plan to attend Cal Poly Pomona (fingers crossed I'm still waiting to hear from them) next fall. I plan to work in the health care field as a Nutritionist or Registered Dietitian . 

          Aside from being a full time student, I work for an after-school program called THINK Together and I have a combo class of 24 first and second graders. They are a handful but I love working with kids. When I am not in class or working, I like to spend my free time at the gym but my new current interest is CrossFit. CrossFit training is a combination of weightlifting, sprints, gymnastics, power-lifting and rowing and it sounds intense but the workouts are designed to adjust to your current level of fitness and the objective is to get people working out together, while supporting one another, and making progress one day at a time.

         What drew me to take this Environmental Science class is that I am interested in understanding and knowing more, on what goes on around me. Everything has a cause and an effect, so if one was able to better understand how their actions or the actions of others affect the world and the environment, one would think twice before committing such actions. A topic I would like to explore this semester is on food production,  and its effects on the environment and humans, whether its organically or genetically modified, I am very interested in this topic.


 My Biological Footprint:

               According to my Ecological Footprint it would take 3.4 Planet Earths to provide enough resources if everyone lived like me. The largest aspect of my ecological footprint is the "Services" which accounts for 58% of my pie chart compared to the percentages of food, shelter, mobility, and goods. Some scenarios explored that I could implement can reduced my ecological footprint. One pledge would be to reduce the amount of animal products consumed by half which would reduce my ecological footprint to 3.3. If I also pledged to used products with less packing material and material made from 100% recycled products that would reduced my footprint to 3.1 planet earths. If I also added solar panels to my house, my ecological footprint would be reduced to 2.9 planet earths. By making sure all my home appliances are energy efficient my biological footprint would be 2.9 as well. If I also pledged to use the public transportation once a week instead of driving my car, my final ecological footprint would be 2.9 planet earths. From a 3.4 to a 2.9 I can reduced my ecological footprint by pledging to make some simple changes that I can implement in my everyday life.