Hello everyone! My name is Kelsey Somers and I am currently a sophomore at Penn State Schuylkill. I have spent my whole life growing up in Pottsville, PA (Home to America’s Oldest Brewery). My major is Early Childhood Education grades PreK-4, and I’m minoring in Special Education. I will be attending Penn State Berks in Fall ’16 for my last two years. I would prefer to teach first or second grade since I have observed in a first grade classroom for an entire semester. You can find me waitressing on the weekends. I took this course because it is required for my major, but I’m also interested in Geography because I want to see how humans affect the environment and what could be done differently to help our environment. One fact about me is that all of my favorite sports teams are from Philadelphia… and yes I’m still an Eagles fan after this season.

The topic issue that caught my attention the most in module one was Human-Environment Interactions. A human-environment interaction is a relationship between people and their environment. One of the main concerns with human-environment interactions is sustainability. The term sustainability is defined as to understand how human activities can exist without disrupting the ability of natural ecosystems to function. There is a great concern about whether social and ecological systems can coexist, and this has helped advance the importance of sustainability. Another important concern following sustainability is governance. Governance is how people make their decisions and how there is an external force to limit their range of options. The term sustainability is a major important focus because scientists need to be able to determine how human activity will not destroy the environment around them. Humans are always readjusting to their environment and we need to understand how we are both positive and negatively interacting.