Students of SMC | Cheyenne Morrill

"Students of SMC" is a video series meant to establish a personal relationship with individual students attending Santa Monica College. The goal of this series is to capture a student's personality through short videos and delve into their passions, ambitions and life lessons in the hopes that their peers will see it and have a greater understanding of those who surround them day in and day out.  It’s easy to get caught up in the stressful life of a student and forget what’s going on in the world around us. But everyone has something to share; everyone has something they are dealing with, pushing towards or growing from and it’s not always written on their face.

In the premiere episode of the series, Cheyenne Morrill is the student feature. We stumbled across Cheyenne relaxing in SMC’s very own community garden eating fresh strawberries. “It’s like an oasis over here,” she said. “I hardly ever hang out anywhere else.”

Cheyenne is all about the environment. She’s a hardcore vegan and studies environmental science. She quickly opened up about the drastic change she made from studying fashion to environmental science. “I just saw all the waste we were producing and I just couldn’t do it anymore," she said. I had so many arguments with myself you know, because I see what I’ve been doing to the earth, and what I’ve been doing my whole life! And I can’t change that.  You fight with yourself because you don't want to change. But now that you’re more aware, you have to change. That’s how I see it.”

Thus her road to saving the world began. While working at Cotton On, she again attempted to make a change by implementing a recycling system, as the company doesn’t have one of their own. When management turned her ideas down, she flat out quit. Not too long after, she was offered a position working at the community garden where she helps others put their not so green thumbs to use. Meditation also play a key role in Cheyenne's life. “I always tell myself three things when I meditate. I tell myself to be happy, to be healthy and honest and everything else will be okay.”

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.  Who else should we feature?

Editor's note: The original version of this article misspelled Cheyenne's last name. We apologize for the mistake.