From Seeds to Sowers — SEEQS Alumni
Senala Poe
My name is Senala Malie Poe. I graduated from SEEQS in 2017. I attended Roosevelt High School and I graduated from Roosevelt in 2021. And currently, I am working as an intern/prep cook at NatuRe Waikiki.
What are one or two experiences from your time at SEEQS that inspired a new passion or helped you further develop your interests?
There's two– one of them is a field trip, another is a class in general. One that really inspired me was when we went and we did beach cleanups and we cleaned the invasive seaweed up from the ocean. I still continue to do beach cleanups. Every time I go to the beach I try to pick up as much trash as I can find. I pick up at Magic Island a lot actually. And for the invasive seaweed, in the current restaurant I work at, we use Ogo in our Ogo butter. So it's something that I think about a lot is us cleaning up the invasive species and leaving the other species. And a class that inspired me a lot would be Mr. Holland's comic book making class. He inspired me a lot to keep on being creative, even though my comic was very simple. It inspired me to keep on going and to also be stubborn in finishing it. I know a lot of people in my class didn't finish theirs. But Mr. Holland pushed me inspired me in the way of like, “finish it, you're almost done. Just go through.” And I think it helped me develop a good stubbornness. Stubbornness is good sometimes. And it really helped me flourish in my creativity and I appreciate it a lot.
What was your favorite memory from an EQS class at SEEQS?
It's a good question! I think it was when we cleaned the water for different ponds and streams when we were testing them for the water quality. I really enjoyed that and just being able to compare the water quality from here versus there and just see a real world effect of things like bacteria in our water quality. You know, like, why we can't drink from that. I know you can't drink from a stream, but it showed me why this is the way that it is and I still think about that and I think it's pretty cool.
What sustainability skill is the most meaningful to your life since SEEQS? To your current activities?
I would say that the skill that I use the most is thinking systemically. I feel like every single day basically I'm thinking about sustainability. I work in a kitchen and because of that we use so much single use plastic, like it bothers me so much. And there's like very few things we can do. Like I have to use gloves. I can't not use single-use gloves because it's not proper if I don't, but like our saran wrap, we can easily replace that. So I've been suggesting to my boss that we start using that burt's beeswax saran wrap, you know, because it's small things. We need to use saran wrap and we need to use it every single day. And I'm constantly thinking about waste, you know, like “how much water am I using?” I compost– we compost almost all of our vegetable trim that we use and if it's not compost, it's used in our food. And in my personal life, I recycle. I reduce my water waste. I try to bus as often as possible. It’s like this thinking of, “Okay, this is something I do. Can I replace it with something else? You know? Can I do something else?” I don't think I've bought a new piece of clothing in two years because everything I own is secondhand, all my clothes. So it’s things like that of, “What can I do?”
How did SEEQS change or deepen your understanding of sustainability and its importance to our community and world?
I would say before SEEQS I was already pretty into the world of sustainability. I would do protests with my mom a lot for anti-GMO and, like, anti-dolphin killing ones, just like random protests. So I was already very deep into it and very well versed into the world. But I think the really nice thing about SEEQS is that it kind of helped me realize that it's not just protesting, you know, it's also like legislation. It's also, “What can you do in your own life?” It's also science, like developing new sciences, like replacing old things with new things, then that idea that we're not alone. There's so many more people who also want sustainability. So it's nice to just have that deeper connection with the community, which I still really appreciate.
Brag about yourself. What is one achievement (or multiple) you've accomplished since SEEQS that you are proud of, big or small?
I ran the marathon while I was at SEEQS so I'm very proud of that. And I continue to run after SEEQS. I got placed in JV divisionals for the 3K, so I'm very, very proud of that, with a PR of… I forget if it was like 13:12 or 12:13… We'll say 12:13 because that time sounds better! So I kept on running after that. And then I kept on doing film with the Hawaii Women in Filmmaking. One of my films that I helped edit got into HIFF, the Hawaii International Film Festival, so I'm quite proud of that. I'm about to graduate culinary school. So I'm also very proud of that. Oh, yeah, I'm also in culinary school…forgot to mention that! I made it into a few more magazines, like small magazines (I'm talking about my filmmaking). One of my art pieces almost made it into the Scholastic Student Art Fair and then COVID happened. If COVID didn't happen, my piece would have made it! And oh, gosh, I can't think of anything else. Those are some of my bigger accomplishments.
What do you wish more people knew about what it means to be a steward of planet Earth and a healthy, effective citizen of the world?
I really wish people knew that you can make a difference. You know, like, be the change you want to see. Like I hear (this is just an example) I hear my dad constantly being like, “Oh, I wish someone would pick up the trash in Chinatown.” And I'm like, “Well, why don't you do it?” You know, “I wish that my neighborhood was more clean.” Well, you can clean your neighborhood easily, you know? You can take a 10 minute walk around your neighborhood with a trash bag and a pair of gloves to clean. So it's so easy. There's little things that you can do to just make the entire Earth better. I talk most about cleaning but that's because of what people complain about the most. You can easily clean up your street. You can easily clean up the beach. It's hard work. It's annoying work. You're like, “Why is no one else doing it?” And it's because no one else is doing it! You can easily be a part of the legislature too, like it's not as hard as people make it up to be.There's even groups you can easily sign up to be part of legislature. If you're talking about big world things, you can go to a protest. It's hard to find out about them but if you put in the effort, you can make the change. Big or small.