Month of May Activities

May of 2012 is a month full of excitement and a month full of first time activities for me...

The most exciting event was on May 12th, when I officiated my best friends wedding, Zachary and Shannon Urban.  They met in 7th grade and were each others first kiss and now will be each others last kiss too. This was the first time I have ever ordained a wedding, and got the crowd to both laugh and cry, I fulfilled my duties. ;)

To get ready for the wedding and grad school, I had to go shopping and get some new clothes.  I have two fashion designers that are my personal stylist, Krystal Wolf and Cameron Levin.  Both of them sent me ideas and fashion tips on what styles to look for, possible stores to visit, color schemes, ideas for outfits, etc.  I have anxiety when it comes to shopping so I enlisted two of the brides best friends, Kelly Rozich and Alexis Smith to come with me to the stores. We were in and out of downtown in less than 3 hours-success!

On May 15th, I helped facilitate the World Affairs Council-Seattle event "Gay Rights as Human Rights" that brought together the Seattle community and international  and local gay rights activists to discuss the importance of Gay Rights as being Human Rights.This issue is very dear to my heart, as I think the abuse that marginalized populations have all over the world for simply being who they are, is inexcusable and that the world needs to protect vulnerable populations.  The first step is to be aware of the issues by joining in on the dialogue and then find how you can contribute to the solutions. 

Tomorrow, May 19th, I will lead a group of volunteers for Seattle Works Day. This is a day that over 1,300 people in Seattle volunteer over 4,000 hours around our city, in either public parks or non profits.  I have volunteered for 6 years now and have lead groups for the past 4 years.  This year, my team will be volunteering and cleaning up Golden Gardens park with over 100 volunteers. I am excited to see what we accomplish.

May 22nd will be my next major event as I am moderating a panel discussion on "Sustainable Science" at the WBBA.  I founded Clean Science in 2008, a group that dialogues about solutions to the waste inherent in Biotech-an industry reliant on sterile, one use products. I heard a statistic that Life Sciences is the largest waste generating industry in the nation. Is it possible to find a way to turn around our waste consumption and become an industry that has zero waste?  My personal goal is to try to make Seattle's Life Science Industry to be zero waste by 2020, and with vendors like Mt. Baker Bio, we may be able to accomplish this. I will keep you posted on how that event goes! Needless to say, I expect it to be inspiring and engaging!

May 24th,  I will be an art judge in this years Washington High School Science Fair- Student Bio Expo.  I have been a judge for a few years now.  The students research a disease or science topic and write an in depth 5 page research paper and then make an art project on their subject.  The kids projects are always intriguing and so creative. As a wannabe artist, I love seeing the youths interpretation of art and science combined.



I will keep you updated on the rest of May!

Elizabeth