History

"Hello, my name is Nicole, and I am the President of From the Ground Up. I never thought my idea could lead to a committee being established based on my passion.

The idea started in my restoration class when I had to read a massive article for a class assignment. Within the paper, I came across the words "abandoned farmland". The words left a bad taste in my mouth. Why was the land abandoned, and why wasn't anyone turning it into something? The idea struck me right there. Let's restore the property into a prairie! I immediately started searching the internet for plots. Little did I know that farmland cost millions of dollars. I sadly did not have that money. I then started searching for land in the community, and I found out that it also costed a couple of thousand dollars. I thought to myself, "what if the University I was attending had land that they were not using"? From there, I offered the idea to the organization, Students for Environmental Concerns, and they loved it. They told me to get more information and create a foundation for the project. I went through a couple professors and finally was in contact with the head land architect for UIUC, and we had an agreement on the restoration project.

I have so many big plans and goals for this project. I hope that this committee can incorporate the local community, teach people how to restore land, and be an activist in their community where land is being mistreated."-- Nicole Gamble, Founder of From the Ground Up.

As From the Ground Up grew as a subcommittee of SECS, we realized that we needed a new home for our mission. With that being said, Nicole and the 2019-2020 officers of FTGU decided to create a new RSO beginning Fall 2020! In this new RSO, we have made some big changes:

• Collaborating with Bee Campus on multiple projects

• Creating our own educational group

• Working towards a sustainable future with other environmental groups on campus