This past week, whenever the weather has been sunny and higher than 60 degrees I have found an excuse to be outside. Whether it be through sitting on hub lawn with a picnic blanket and a few friends or taking the longer route when walking to a class, I absolutely love being outside. What I’ve realized through this time outside is that I actually really love Penn State. That statement sounds sarcastic, but honestly, I think it takes everyone some time to adjust to college and call University Park their second home. I realized that the time I have the most “school pride” or feel the happiest in the college environment is when I see how beautiful our campus can be with the spring bloom, and this honestly gave me so much more motivation and serotonin. Also seeing other college students enjoying the beautiful weather is definitely a huge community builder and just puts a smile on my face.
Now for a little bit of reflection…throughout my first year at Penn State, I think I have grown in terms of two main factors; finding my community and learning more about myself as a student. At the beginning of the year, I initially struggled with finding my place within the Smeal community especially as a freshman who still isn’t quite as sure regarding my career path trajectory. Since the beginning of the year, I think I have gotten a lot closer with my cohort in Sapphire and have found my place through joining the Nittany Lion Fund, as this organization has brought me a lot of wonderful friends and mentors within my major. Additionally, in the first semester I really struggled with managing my time which led to me getting around 4 hours (or less) of sleep every night. I really struggled with saying no to various clubs or events and tried to overbook myself. However, now I have a prioritized list of my extracurriculars that I am passionate about and I have learned the importance of saying no to prioritize my health. I’ve also learned that I personally am a To-Do list person, especially in college, and I work best when I get the tasks I am most likely to procrastinate the most on, first.
In terms of my goals for next year, I hope to explore future leadership opportunities through getting more involved in Sapphire and the Presidential Leadership Academy, as well as taking on Treasurer for my dance team and a director position within the Fund. Continually, I hope to gain a better understanding of work life balance and prioritize spending time with friends and family throughout the semester as well. Thank you for allowing CAS to be such a wonderful environment, the projects and assignments in this class were never an extra form of stress and often served as projects where I could share my passions on various topics. Also, the other passion blogs definitely helped me learn more about myself as a student as well, which is something I am really grateful for, especially in terms of mental health and growth!

This week, I implemented the positivity tactic of trying to get at least one meal a day with a friend to ensure that I am not doing work during my meals and giving myself a mental break. I actually was able to accomplish this goal pretty easily, and it also helped me with ensuring that I ate at least two full and healthy meals a day. I made sure to plan a meal at least 24 hours before so that it’s solidified and I am able to put it in my calendar. I tried to explore various locations downtown and even different on campus dining places, other than Redifer which is my commons. I enjoyed exploring various places to eat, as I often end up spending all of my days in the business building so making solidified plans elsewhere helped me get out of the Business Building or the dorm! Some of those locations included Roots, Crust & Crumbs Cafe, various Starbucks and Panera locations, BRGR, Mr. Wish, and Snap Pizza.
While grabbing meals sometimes I will admit that the plans definitely do take more time rather than me just grabbing food on my own quickly. On average, the plans add about an hour in terms of my schedule, especially if it is a sit-down place downtown. However, they definitely supply a good break for me to enjoy the company of the individual I am getting a meal with. Also, especially within the last few weeks of the semester, it was nice to be able to catch up with people I might not see all summer and just hear what they’ve got going on. I think that getting at least one meal a day with a friend is definitely manageable. This meal was usually dinner as it is easier to plan to go downtown towards the end of the day, and it provided for a good break between my classes and extracurriculars to focus on homework for the rest of the night, or even just a wind-down after a long day. Also, I found myself more motivated to complete my work afterward as I felt like I had more of a sufficient break. I think the positives of increased motivation and spending time with important people in my life outweighs the potential stress of losing time throughout the day.
Next week I will be focusing on spending more time outside as a positive tactic, as I often do better and am more productive when studying if I am around a lot of windows and have a lot of natural light. In general, I am a person that enjoys spending time outside when the weather is nice, and so in the coming days when the weather’s nice I hope to spend more time outside and take advantage of that. I think that it may be a good destressing tactic to get a breath of fresh air and also make my environment a little different and perhaps more enjoyable rather than my dorm or the business building.

This week, I tried several new study places and I really enjoyed the process of exploring around campus! Some places I studied include the renovated portion of Willard, different floors of the Hub, Hub lawn, different locations in the Pattee-Paterno Library, the nursing building, Atherton study lounges, the Business Building, and the Huck Life Sciences building. I could honestly see myself continuing to study at all of these places throughout different times of the week, and the process of changing environments was really helpful in learning more about myself as a student.
I think that my favorite locations out of the different study spots I chose to explore would be the nursing building and the floor on the Hub where there are sofas and lots of daylight. These locations were the locations where I was the most comfortable and productive. I can definitely be a big procrastinator which can lead to my mental health spiraling in the sense that I just continue to think about tasks I have to do without actually doing them. These two locations were the ones that I actually was able to tackle a lot of the tasks I was avoiding with minimum stress and maximum focus. I think this is because both of these locations were still close to my dorm, as I live in South, so it wasn’t a hike just to get to the study location itself. This ultimately made me more comfortable to go to these locations and didn’t require a lot of motivation just to get there and spend hours studying. Additionally, both of these locations had a lot of natural light. I have realized that I am definitely a person who needs a lot of natural light and not too many people around when I’m doing work and trying to be my most productive self. That is why I chose to go to these locations at times where there is daylight and not too many people around (such as over the weekend for the Hub, or in the late afternoon for the nursing building). I especially love these spots because you can look right outside the window to see downtown and Hub lawn with lots of greenery, which just makes the environment so much more pleasant.
During high school, I mostly did all of my studying in my bedroom (either on my desk or on my bed, depending on how lazy I am). However, in college I have realized that I immediately associate my dorm as a “break” sort of location, as I often just go to my dorm throughout the day to watch TV with my roommate, take naps, or chill and eat meals with my friends. Therefore, I think that in college I have to make the distinction that while my dorm is definitely a great place for me to wind down and prioritize my mental health in other ways, to maintain a positive and focused mindset with school work I need to go to another location. I definitely want to continue exploring the different naturally lit and less busy studying spots around campus, and I think it is feasible and enjoyable to do so.
The next positivity tactic I am going to try to incorporate is getting at least one meal a day with a friend each weekday, despite my busy schedule. I consider myself an extrovert and I definitely enjoy people’s company when eating meals especially, so I think that on busier days getting a meal with a friend would have a significant positive impact on my mental health.

Welcome back everyone! If I’m being honest, the timing of this positive mindset method could not have been better. As mentioned in the last blog, my sister is currently in the process of moving to Texas for her full-time job and this transition is definitely hard for all of us as she has been working from home for the past few months after graduating college due to the pandemic. Being in State College while my sister spends her last days at home with our parents has been really difficult and has definitely made me feel quite homesick. This week is even bigger as my family is flying down to Austin, Texas and spending my mom’s birthday there with our family friends so I’m feeling even more out of place. I consider myself a pretty family-oriented individual, so not being able to be in person for this important moment in my sister’s life as well as my mom’s birthday has definitely been a difficult experience. Therefore, engaging in the positive tactic of trying to speak with my family every day this week has definitely helped in feeling less homesick. Normally, I speak with my family once every two or three days in a week, so this week I prioritized calling them once a day for at least 5-10 minutes.
This experience definitely helped me feel more grounded and I felt so much better after I got off the phone with my family. My sister was able to Facetime me to show me her new apartment, and my mom sent me a lot of pictures of all of the fancy TexMex meals and tourist buildings they saw in Texas. Talking to my family about my day and being able to experience the family trip through pictures and phone calls helped make me feel more motivated with school work as I just felt better after speaking with them. My mom is also incredibly sweet and she makes sure to always tell me how much she misses me every day when on this trip, and just speaking with her helped me feel more positive and loved, as corny as it may sound.
The new positivity tactic I will be trying is to try different study environments this week. I have realized that my mood and mindset is actually really dependent on my environment and the people I surround myself with. This week, I am going to try to study at different places around campus and see if I am the type of person where I like just having one solid study spot or exploring around campus more. Hopefully, I come out of trying this tactic with study spot recommendations and a closer connection with the Penn State campus as a whole, while also learning more about myself. Through exploring different environments, I hope to learn how changing environments can help in maintaining motivation, focus, and positivity, especially in terms of academics.

Welcome to this week’s blog, let’s jump right into it! After testing the habit of going to the gym for about three weeks, I’ve learned a few things about myself and how going to the gym contributes to my journey of trying to maintain a positive mindset. Overall, I believe that going to the gym has had a positive impact on me. On days where I might not be as academically motivated to take on all of my coursework, going to the gym helps provide motivation to get out of bed and at least get my body moving. Additionally, I feel extremely refreshed and accomplished after going to the gym because I know I pushed myself physically and it is just a reassuring feeling knowing that you are taking care of yourself in some capacity. As I mentioned in the previous blog, sometimes I can have high expectations for myself in terms of the gym and that leads to a certain pressure to go to the gym solely to be more fit or healthy, rather than enjoyment and positivity. What I have come to realize is that I personally think going to the gym twice a week for about an hour is manageable to me. I may be able to increase how much I go as a start to settle into this habit more and more, but as of now I think this is what I feel comfortable with. Not restricting my schedule to certain days as “gym days” also takes off some of the pressure and allows for some more flexibility. I think I have the most positive mindset (and even the most efficient workouts) when I feel no pressure to go to the gym and it isn’t like a burden; I simply go out of enjoyment and to get my body moving.
A little bit about my experiences at the gym… I’ve been going with my roommate and it’s been really enjoyable. At first, I felt really intimidated by the amount of testosterone present in the weight room; however, I’ve gotten more comfortable with just putting in my headphones with my “straight fire” Spotify playlist blasting, and just vibing and minding my own business. I start with running 1-2 miles on the treadmill and then I might go on the stair stepper for a little bit (depending on my mood). Then, I take a yoga mat and do squats with some arm weights, curl ups, lunges, some planks, and then I finish it off my stretching. There is obviously some variation present in this routine, but overall, I think that going any two days a week for about an hour is a sustainable positive habit for me.
The next positive habit that I’m going to try to implement is to prioritize texting my family everyday. My sister is in the process of moving to Texas, and my family is going through some major shifts right now so I know that talking with them every day would make me feel more at home and present throughout the moving process. Additionally, I’m starting to feel really homesick so I think that communicating with my family more despite a busy schedule will help me feel more grounded and happy.

It’s been a while, let’s catch up! I last left off with me trying to watch shows as a strategy of detoxing every day, and getting back into TV shows as a form of entertainment and bonding with my roommate in the process. Since initially setting this goal, I am proud to say that I have completed the entire series of You as well as the first season of Criminal Minds and am thoroughly enjoying delving into these Netflix shows. I realized that watching an episode a day (maybe two or three on some days…) helped me just step outside of my busy schedule and just be entrapped into a different world for a little bit. Especially because my roommate and I took upon this stress relieving activity together, we planned our episodes as study breaks or our entertainment while eating in the dorm. It has become a great bonding activity for us; there are many days where each of us will quite literally say, “It’s been a rough day… Criminal Minds?” I actually am able to see myself sustaining this habit as it is extremely individualized and I only participate in it when I know I need a break and I have enough work on my plate where a stress reliever is necessary.
In the past two weeks, I have tried a new stress reliever technique which has been working out three days a week. Oftentimes, when I’m starting to feel overwhelmed I look forward to my dance practice at night where I can disconnect from my school work and just focus on physical activity for two hours each night. However, my dance competition season just ended so I am now looking for a new method to release endorphins and get in exercise. For the past two weeks, I have worked out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday and it has definitely helped me feel more productive and healthy overall. I will say that while after the workout I feel more motivated to complete my tasks, I do feel a certain pressure to workout to be “healthy” and it’s not always associated with positive thoughts initially. I think that a way to handle this would be to not restrict myself to those three days specifically as my schedule changes quite a lot. I should be flexible and acknowledge that I’m not always going to have positive workouts, but it’s the act of going to the gym and taking care of myself that brings more positivity into my mindset. I will be trying to continue using this mentality and will reflect on its effectiveness in the next blog!

Americans are materialistic; a blatant fact that is the foundational pillar of the American identity. Materialism has engulfed American societal ideals since the Industrial Revolution and since then has defined what it is to be an American. Along with this economic ideology is the stigma that materialistic and monetary gains outweigh any possible negative outcome that could arise from a capitalistic mindset. As Andrew Carnegie, the father of industrialization and a persistent advocate of capitalism, states in The Gospel of Wealth, “The price which society pays for the law of competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is also great; but the advantages of this law are also greater still, for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development.” While materialism during Carnegie’s era was primarily focused on industrialization and physical resources, a materialistic mindset in this day and age primarily results in popular brand association and money-oriented decisions. As a matter of fact, “More than 56 percent of those between the ages of 14 and 20 say that ‘having a rich lifestyle’ is a top priority for them, according to a study by the PNC Financial Group.” However, a key factor to investigate is how this “Carnegie-like” attitude affects one’s ability to achieve happiness. Furthermore, a mentality that focuses primarily on materialistic and monetary gains limits the achievement of contentment because it rearranges one’s priorities.
Firstly, rearrangement can be seen when it causes people to increase their intentions of working and reduces their intentions of engaging in happiness-inducing activities. To prove this, an experiment was conducted where, “Participants were given a list of word sets that each contained four words, and they were instructed to use three of the words in each set to create a set.” The words included either “sheets the change clock”, which made a group time primed, “sheets the change price”, which made a group money primed, or “sheets the change socks” which was for the control group. Afterward, the subjects were given a survey to rate on a scale from 1 to 7 how much they planned on doing certain activities within the next 24 hours, and how happy these activities made them. The participants that were primed with money in the experiment had the highest rating of the intention to work and commute the next day, and consequently had the lowest rating compared to the other two experimental groups to engage in the highest happiness-inducing activities including intimate relations, relaxing, and socializing. In fact, the average rating from the scale for high happiness activities like socializing was 5.39 whereas the working rating was only 4.39, which results in a statistically significant difference of 1.00. This experiment displays how a focus on money compels thoughts of money-related activities which promotes less of a priority on happiness as a whole. In fact, “People who are materialistic tend to have lower levels of happiness, generosity, and self-satisfaction and a higher risk of anxiety and negative behaviors that people who don’t care as much about possessions.” This quotation portrays that money does not invoke feelings or happiness or contentment with oneself. If one works just to receive monetary gains, the working actions become less enjoyable which was proven through the ratings of the money primed group. This workaholic lifestyle makes the average American focus on getting a job just to gain more, not because they have an actual passion or skill set for it. This leads to more people having similar ideals to Carnegie, and therefore wanting to just make it to the top of the materialistic food chain without actually reaping any emotional satisfaction. If American society continues to prioritize work over contentment, mental health will plummet and a frantically dangerous cycle of working will endlessly continue leading to no true reward.
However, an unfaltering drawback to focusing on contentment rather than money would be less productivity and stability due to too much of a priority on happiness. It is important to recognize that monetary and materialistic gains do not help achieve happiness after a certain threshold of stability is achieved. Nevertheless, until that threshold is crossed, monetary and materialistic gains are vital in a survivalistic aspect. While these stability concerns are completely valid, the best mentality is still not a purely more-is-better attitude. Instead, the best solution for a mindset, at least until the threshold is achieved, is to have a perfect balance. This way, a clear focus on achieving financial stability is maintained while additionally not losing all grasps of contentment and personal happiness. Another undeniable drawback to a mindset based on contentment is that people won’t have a definite goal to work towards. For example, Carnegie, who was a self-made man, was motivated to become the leader of the steel industry because he had a clear goal of wanting to make more money and become like his previous authorities. Without this goal to strive toward, he wouldn’t have been as successful. Despite the fact that Carnegie’s success story is a powerful advocate of a materialistic mindset, it should be understood that it can only take someone so far. At the end, passion and commitment are the true driving forces to progress; without it success is not plausible. If Carnegie had not persevered or felt strongly about the topic, he wouldn’t have attained his goals.
The materialistic factor of the American identity has negatively influenced countless aspects of American society, including mental health and socio-economic gaps. Instead, Americans should strive to vitalize self-contentment by focusing on time rather than money, or by being more open towards all brand names through strategies like evaluative conditioning. By utilizing these equalizing techniques in a way that can alter previous headstrung opinions, one can dampen the sturdy effect of materialism on American society and lead to a more positive tomorrow.

Tuition: the cost that has the ability to severely limit student’s learning capabilities while also providing students with ample learning opportunities. Recently, there has been an ongoing trend of prioritizing higher education, but with the increased emphasis comes more selectivity and differences in attainability regarding one’s financial stability. Because of the contradicting effects of tuition, it is logical for there to be a direct relationship between tuition and college enrollment. In fact, studies show that for every $100 increase in tuition, a 0.7% participation drop of 18 to 24 year old participation in college should be expected (Heller, 1997). Tuition continues to be a deterrent for higher education and thus social mobility as a whole, which directly contributes to the inequity present within education and opportunities to join the workforce. The effect of tuition on college enrollment rates can be predicted by tuition elasticity in relation to financially fulfilling majors, financial aid satisfaction, and higher enrollment status.
A student’s enrollment status is a vital factor in determining one’s tuition elasticity and tuition. As hypothesized, “newly enrolled students respond differently to tuition changes than currently enrolled students” (Shin & Milton, 2007). For example, a first-time student might weigh their options by comparing tuition of colleges in which they aren’t enrolled, whereas a returning student might simply accept the tuition level at their college to stick with their college. This means that arriving students are more vulnerable to competing school rates and tuition variations while returning students are more elastic to tuition increases within their college. Speaking of competing colleges, research indicates that “the tuition levels at competing colleges might affect a college’s enrollment (cross-price effects) as much or more than the absolute tuition level at the college itself” (Shin & Milton, 2007). This evidence shows that first-year students are bound to stay at the college they are enrolled in, even if the college increases its tuition, if the tuition is still lower than that of competing colleges. In conclusion, the more seniority a student has within a college, the more the student is willing to pay tuition, despite variations, and maintain enrollment.
While enrollment status is influential to a student’s flexibility and retention in higher education, a student’s academic major also plays a crucial role. Overall, studies conclude that “disciplines expected to result in high rates of return might be less sensitive to tuition level or tuition increase” (Shin & Milton, 2007). This is because students involved in these successful majors expect sufficient monetary returns for their investment in college and are therefore likely to pay more in college. Researchers report that “Engineering graduates received the highest hourly wage, followed by Business, Science, Liberal Arts, and Education” (Shin & Milton, 2007). A study was conducted on a public college between 2002 and 2004 where the tuition was increase $934 each year, and a census was gathered on the enrollments of each major. The Engineering major had the highest amount of enrollments, taking up around 17.9% of all students enrolled in the year 2004, despite the tuition increases (Shin & Milton, 2007). This evidence portrays that even though the tuition of this college was significantly increased per year, the students in majors with substantial financial returns are less likely to be affected by tuition modifications and are more likely to remain enrolled, displayed by their tremendous enrollment rate.
Contrasting to enrollment status and academic major, financial aid has the opposite effect on tuition elasticity and tuition, as it significantly reduces students’ educational finances. Financial aid decreases tuition which then increases enrollment rates–the inverse of the relationship analyzed so far. Students from lower-income families depend on financial aid to have the ability to attend college, which subsequently increases enrollment. In fact, “20% to 40% of the enrollment of lower-income students was due to the existence of grants, and 13% of middle-income student enrollments were due to grants” (Heller, 1997). This statistic portrays how financial aid assists students to attend college by relieving them of their financial responsibilities, therefore increasing enrollment. However, it is also important to note that schools with a typically higher tuition fee have a different application pool. For example, students who have the financial capacity to pay higher tuition are more likely to Early Decision to a school, rather than a student who isn’t as financially stable. Early Decision applicants typically have a higher acceptance rate, thus, financial aid doesn’t always have substantial effects on a student’s decision to apply to an expensive school earlier in the application process.
All in all, the effect of tuition on college retention rates can be predicted by a student’s tuition flexibility which is determined by increasing enrollment status, financially promising majors, and financial aid fulfillment. As a solution to these inequalities, colleges should determine the appropriate tuition by creating a pricing model based on a student’s tuition elasticity which could be “useful in predicting the retention rate of current students at increasing tuition rates” (Bryan & Whipple, 1995). Additionally, universities should utilize Tuition Elasticity and Net Earnings Projections models to evaluate the effects of various tuition rates on enrollment and predict profits from hypothetical scenarios (Bryan & Whipple, 1995). Financial inequity currently has a substantial effect on a student’s decision to apply and/or commit to a college institution or even consider higher education as a whole. This effect should be further mitigated to offer students more mobility regarding their future socioeconomic statuses, and allow their past to not have as much of a lasting effect. By including a cost policy that encompasses enrollment status, academic major, and financial aid while adjusting tuition accordingly, colleges can create a profitable system that not only bolsters enrollment rates, but also creates an accessible learning environment for all.

References
Bryan, G. A., & Whipple, T. W. (1995, September 1). Tuition elasticity of the demand for higher education among current students: a pricing model. Journal of Higher Education (Vol. 66, Issue 5). Retrieved September 26, 2019, from https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?
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Heller, D. E. (1997). Student price response in higher education. Journal of Higher Education, 68(6), 624+. Retrieved from https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A20424145
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Shin, J. C., & Milton, S. (2008). Student response to tuition increase by academic majors: empirical grounds for a cost-related tuition policy. Higher Education, 55(6), 719+. Retrieved from https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A384440967/PROF?u=west63149&
sid=PROF&xid=5496baf8

Coastal regions are immensely valuable to society; they supply a multitude of ecological resources that are capable of supporting many populations of a diverse array of species. However, due to expeditiously rising sea levels caused by climate change and “the addition of melt water from grounded ice sheets and glaciers,” these regions and their industries face the arduous challenge of maintaining economic resiliency (Williams, 2013). Economic resilience is defined as “the ability of social-ecological systems (SES) to endure biophysical and economic disturbances” and is vital to the country’s economic stability and growth (Caffey, Kazmierczak, and Savolainen, 2015). The statuses of these industries are a valid concern as studies show that between the year 1992 and 2015, coastal region land volume has decreased by approximately 31% due to rising sea levels (Phillips, Jones, & Thomas, 2018). If this shoreline recession continues, the country may bear existential monetary losses like $131 million just within the Gulf of Mexico region (Caffey, Kazmierczak, and Savolainen, 2015). Rising sea levels affect the various industries of coastal regions by negatively impacting the tourism, agriculture, and fishing industries through requiring more economic resiliency.
Rising sea levels resulting from climate change create a tenacious obstacle between the agriculture industry and economic resilience. For example, in Taiwan, there were “losses of 164 billion [New Taiwan Dollars] in agricultural productions and infrastructure in 2009” due to a typhoon caused by rising sea levels and climate change (Lin & Chou, 2019). In Taiwan itself, an experiment was conducted by Hsingchun Lin and Lichen Chou, two economics professors from Chinese universities, in which the economic status of agricultural losses of Taiwan, a coastal region, and Mainland China, a non-coastal region, were compared to see if location significantly impacted the amount of agricultural losses endured (Lin & Chou, 2019). The experiment displayed that Taiwan underwent a loss of approximately 170,204 farming products compared to Mainland China which underwent a loss of approximately 141,312 farming products from 2005 to 2010, resulting in a statistically significant difference of 28,892 between the two regions (Lin & Chou, 2019). This data displays how even though both regions experienced equal exposure to both sea level rise and natural disasters, the coastal region’s agriculture industry was more heavily impacted due to its location. Some may say that since specifically coastal region agricultural industries are more heavily impacted, it should not have a strong effect on the whole nation’s economy since a majority of the nation’s farms are mainland. However, as proven through this experiment, climate change still had a detrimental effect on Mainland China, regardless of its comparison to Taiwan. Therefore the comparatively smaller effects of climate change on mainland regions will accumulate to become severely dangerous for the economy. Moreover, the losses in agricultural products caused by climate change will most likely result in losses in other industries through industrial linkage.
When looking at other instances of industrial linkage, both the agricultural and fishing industries face the effects of rising sea levels. According to a survey that specifically targets the economic status of the fishing industry around the Gulf of Mexico conducted by Louisiana State University professors Caffey, Kazmierczak, and Savolainen, 75% of respondents indicated that their firms experienced financial damage due to circumstances caused by climate change between 2004 and 2008 (2015). This time period was chosen because these years were when the effect of rising sea levels was at its peak as thirteen hurricanes had struck this area. The fishing industry specifically is affected through the following factors: the annual number of trips the business makes, the duration of these trips, the storm surge (feet), the latitude of home port, and the longitude of home port (Caffey, Kazmierczak, and Savolainen, 2015). Some may say that since each fishing business’s damage is dependent on its own unique factors, not all coastal region fishing industries will be impacted by climate change. Despite this fact, the economic resiliency of all businesses within the industry are still declining due to rising sea levels, regardless of the rate at which degradation is occurring.
Lastly, the tourism industry is another major industry to be impacted by rising sea levels and climate change. Investing in a property within a coastal region is extremely popular due to the appealing tropical climate. However, according to Phillips, Jones, and Thomas, UK professionals from the Coastal and Marine Research Group, the Institute for Tourism Travel and Culture, and the Construction Department of Wales, respectively, “global warming and sea level rise are coastal hazards difficult to quantify, but indirect costs will include falling property values and loss or transfer of tourism revenues” (2018). Therefore, it is shown how less people are willing to invest in coastal properties due to the increased risk of damage and cost of repair, leading to a drastic drop in the tourism and real estate industry. Continually, if current policies of “managed retreat,” where sections of the coastline are abandoned, and “no active intervention,” where there is no planned investment to defend at the coastline, are followed, each coast might endure a monetary loss of around 66 million dollars (Phillips, Jones, & Thomas, 2018). This striking statistic calls for a more efficient and long term method of policy and management, to ensure that all industries among coastal regions maintain economic resiliency.
The Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) has been seen as a probable solution to resolve this lack of proper policy and management. Overall, this policy “promotes a broad overall perspective that considers the interdependence and disparity of natural systems and human activities with an impact on coastal areas” (Carrero, Naas, Malvárez, & Cáceres, 2013). This way, an environmentally healthy yet socio-economically considerate policy is being established and implemented. Additionally, through this method researchers could be able to discover how a coastal environment has changed over a certain period of time and then continue to make predictions about what the land will evolve into (Carrero, Naas, Malvárez, & Cáceres, 2013). This solution is desperately needed from an economic and environmental standpoint. According to Hill and Martinez-Diaz, for every degree Celsius increase of warming, the US economy will lose about 1.2 percent of GDP per year, effectively halving the country’s annual growth (2020). So regardless of whether or not one may be physically living in a coastal region, each country’s fiscal situation is deteriorating due to this rising issue. Action must be taken immediately to ensure that the nation does not fall into a dangerous economic cycle of aid and debt, ultimately leading to a depletion of the global economy.

References
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This semester, I would like to switch things up for my passion blog…I’m going to be doing a series where I focus on a different method of how to stay positive and relieve stress every week. The story behind this passion blog idea goes back to around 4 years ago. During my freshman year of high school, one of the English projects that really stuck with me was a “How To” speech and I did my project on “How to Stay Positive.” Within the past four years, a lot has changed in my life and I am extremely grateful for all of the changes and opportunities for growth that have come along the way. However, I have realized that throughout this process, I have naturally lost touch with a lot of healthy habits that I used to practice back in my freshman year of high school due to some of my priorities realigning. However, these small daily habits used to provide me with the opportunity to clear my mind and prioritize things that make me happy and feel more centered and positive. I would like to explore different methods that have worked for me in the past as well as new ideas to see which methods work best with my new college lifestyle.
The first habit that I am going to try until the next passion blog is to watch an episode of a show that I truly enjoy every day. Throughout getting to know myself, I have realized that I am not really a TV show person. If I’m being honest, I have not fully finished a show in about 3 years and I find myself always blaming it on not having time. However, watching an interesting storyline and having a moment to detox from my life and be completely captivated by a show’s plot and characters used to be something I did every day. I am going to try to get into this habit again this week by watching episodes of the Netflix series You. This show has been on my “Watch Later” list since it initially came out and became famous for its well-thought out plot twists and detailed development of characters. I think that this habit will allow me to refocus whenever I need a break from studying or my busy schedule of classes. I will hold myself accountable to this habit by watching the show with my roommate, as she also wants to watch the episodes and will definitely motivate me to make time every day to watch at least one episode whenever I feel stressed and need to refocus. In the next passion blog, I will reflect on how engaging in this habit made me feel in terms of relieving stress and becoming more positive and whether or not I see myself being able to sustain this habit throughout the semester and beyond.