By Abby Fisher, Senior at Decatur Township School for Excellence

Mission: To conserve our Earth's resources, educate the public about sustainable lifestyles, and inspire the next generation to change the world.

Personal statement: Being a good steward of the Earth is a very important part of my life, and in order to demonstrate that in an "out of the box" way, I decided for my school project to renovate an old camper trailer into a livable tiny house. My tiny house will be made primarily of recycled materials as opposed to new, because I do not want to use up extra natural resources on this project. I can simply just use what has already been created, and re-purpose things that were about to be thrown away. The carbon-footprint will be lower because of its small size and green features, such as a composting toilet and energy efficient appliances and fixtures. My hope is to be able to run all electricity through solar panels, but as expected, that does not fit well into a high school student’s budget. Even though this might not be attainable right now, I plan on utilizing all waste that I produce as a way to organically fertilize plants, feed chickens, and anything else I can come up with.