A University High School student is leaving his legacy on LSU’s campus by planting cypress trees along the west coast of University Lake.
Vaughn Meiners is a junior at U-High and a member of the International Baccalaureate program — an alternative, advanced curriculum that develops students’ critical thinking skills.
Students enrolled in the IB program are required to complete Creativity, Activity and Service, or CAS, projects. The projects are meant to challenge students to find creative ways to serve their communities.
At the beginning of the school year, Meiners heard about a past IB student’s CAS project involving the planting of cypress trees at U-High.
“They were cypress trees from our very own campus,” Meiners said. “They started off as seeds from cypress trees already planted here. It’s been a couple of years since they were planted, though, so they’ve had time to develop and get ready for the actual planting stage.”
That’s when Meiners had the idea to plant them along the University Lakes. He contacted Sage Foley, an alumna of U-High and the executive director of Baton Rouge Green, and collaborated with environmental science teacher Steve Babcock to plant the trees at the lakes
“Using the environmental [science] classes, we were able to get 80 students out there to plant, I believe, 16 cypress trees,” Meiners said. “It’s looking really good. It was awesome. It was a great, great opportunity.”
The cypress planting was only one of Meiners’ CAS projects this year, but he had to wait until November to plant the trees.
“I’d say that it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Meiners said. “It’s really good for overall developing you as a person, because without it, I probably wouldn’t be challenged as much, and I think I’ve really grown from it.”
According to IB instructor Karen Holden, the CAS projects consist of seven learning objectives, and throughout the year, students have to incorporate 150 service hours in order to maintain IB status.
“The creativity aspect, they have to come up with some kind of creative idea to help people in the community,” Holden said. “The A stands for activity, to keep you healthy and to keep your body in good shape. Then S is service, and their projects consist of doing anything that’s of service to the community, or really anything that’s of service.”
While waiting for the right planting season, Meiners completed a second CAS project that gave back to his local park.
“At my local park, I noticed that these elderly people would come, and they wouldn’t have anywhere to sit. So I built a bench for them, and now it’s at the park for them to use,” Meiners said.
Another of his projects, meant to fulfill the “activity” component of CAS, involved running 40 miles over the course of several months and preparing a meal plan for the venture.
Meiners’ next project is recording an oral history of his family to relay to his descendants. He and other IB candidates will share their histories to better understand, learn and compare where everyone has come from.
While Meiners is undecided on his choice of university, his tree project will leave a lasting legacy on LSU and Baton Rouge at large.
“These trees will be here and represent my class and me in the future,” Meiners said. “Why not do it in the best way possible, by making our community prettier, our campus prettier and our air cleaner?”
