Undergraduate student launching nonprofit to promote pro-environment change
Editor’s note:
Every day, dedicated faculty, students, staff and alumni of the College of Public Health are impacting the well-being of communities locally, nationally and around the world. Our Buckeyes are passionate leaders and advocates committed to ensuring all people have the opportunity to thrive. “Buckeyes in Action” showcases the multitude of ways our community is driving public health forward in tangible, immediate ways.
Oshin Samuel’s public health interests started in high school when she got involved in Science Olympiad, a national STEM-based competition and learning program.
When others shied away from complex topics in epidemiology, she was drawn to the challenge. The concepts came intuitively, she said.
Now, before she’s even finished her undergraduate degree in the College of Public Health, Samuel has a plan to help central Ohio communities prioritize sustainability and public health.
While taking the college’s Climate Change and Human Health course, which Samuel called “perspective altering”, the third-year public health student realized information about how to mitigate climate change is often too complex for many people to understand, isn’t well-communicated and doesn’t reach local communities, small businesses and citizens to engage in meaningful ways. This, she said, is an obstacle to more people — from business and government leaders to individual citizens — seeking to make a difference.
“All of this information is there, but it’s not in the public sphere. It falls to the people who have more knowledge, more power and more understanding to … share that in a way that makes sense,” Samuel said.
So she’s starting a nonprofit called Terra Task.
The genesis of Terra Task
Fueled by passions for sustainability, social justice and empowering local communities, Samuel took the leap in September.
Through Terra Task, Samuel wants to help local governments, businesses and individuals create sustainable and long-term actions that improve their communities and public health, she said. She hopes these efforts also can address the environmental injustice and health disparities that disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
“The climate and public health are irrevocably intertwined,” Samuel said. “Climate change affects the physical environment that people live in, and a changing environment often leads to negative health outcomes. Terra Task aims to create a sustainability-oriented mindset which means local communities will begin viewing the world from an environmental perspective.”
To get started, Samuel developed four workshops — Sustainability 101, Making Sustainability Sustainable, The History of Sustainability and Sustainability on a Global Scale.
She also is developing a sustainability index that helps communities and businesses, starting with those in central Ohio, assess their ecological footprints and offer solutions they can incorporate into their daily practices.
Central to Terra Task’s mission, Samuel said, will be honoring and acknowledging the sustainable practices indigenous communities have employed for centuries because they “offer invaluable insights into sustainable living” and were the start of many sustainable practices used today.
“Indigenous communities in the United States and internationally have modeled and pioneered sustainability-first practices in their lives,” she said. “If we want to help people go back to sustainable thinking and respecting the land and communities we reside in and with, no one did it like indigenous communities.”
Big goals for the near, long term
In the final semester of her undergraduate degree and honors capstone work, Samuel’s goals include filing for tax-exempt status and establishing a board of directors. She also plans to elevate her skills in data analysis and visualization, partner with at least 10 local businesses to assign sustainability scores, host 10 sustainability workshops and establish a communications plan to promote Terra Task’s services and fundraise to support the nonprofit.
Samuel knows it is a lot of work to launch a nonprofit and earn her degree simultaneously, but it is the most excited she has ever been, she said.
And her enthusiasm and drive have been garnering attention at Ohio State.
“She has been really intentional in cultivating what her student experience at Ohio State looks like, all in service of this greater mission,” said Kala Coyan-McClure, Samuel’s Student Leadership Advocates advisor. “It’s really inspiring to see students at Ohio State dream big in that way and also leverage their connections and their experiences here to get there.”
Paul Rosile, associate professor of public health practice and Samuel’s honors capstone preceptor said, “She wants to make the world a better place. She’s the kind of person who’s going to say, ‘Here’s a problem. I’m going to figure out how to solve it.’”
