The Environmental Rower

I’ve recently started a self-paced and self-assessed course, The Health Effect of Climate Change on a platform called EdX. This course is an introductory course published by HarvardX. I will learn about how climate change has impacted our nutrition migration, infectious diseases, and how nations are responding to the difficult challenge of battling climate change. …

This school year I’ve started a course called AP Environmental Science. It’s a high level high school course that counts towards college credits. This course focuses on “ecological processes, human impacts on earth, and how to resolve or prevent natural and human-made environmental problems.” So far, I’ve learned about ecosystems, biodiversity, and populations. This course…

On September 8th, Bergen County opened up their new $7 million boathouse, located on Passaic River, Lyndhurst, which is where my team rows! This boathouse is part of an initiative to renovate the county parks and push for public recreational usage of the open land. The 2-story boathouse is equipped with racks for storing rowing…

During this past summer, I interned for the Ridgewood Water Department, my local water department, for seven weeks. During my internship, I performed a variety of tasks. I scanned more than 8,000 sheets of paper-based work orders dating back 20 years. This task consisted of un-stapling, scanning, re-stapling, and chronologically sorting them. I also had…

In late July, I boarded the Corwith Cramer, a research sailing vessel owned by the Sea Education Association (S.E.A.). I was successful in my application to participate in the SEA Expedition, an offshore two week summer program for high school students interested in learning and experiencing oceanographic research and sailing. This was one heck of…

During Spring, I rowed at different sites for practice and regattas including: Passaic River, Riverside County, New Jersey; Cooper River, Camden County, New Jersey; and Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The environmental water conditions differed tremendously.  From my perspective, the Passaic River is in the worst condition, with oil floating on the water, plastic products and…

Ridgewood Water is the water supplier for Ridgewood, New Jersey, and neighboring towns. This spring I interviewed at the Ridgewood Water Department and secured a paid internship for the summer. During the summer, I will be going into the field and learning more about what Ridgewood Water does. Ridgewood has had lead problems in the…

During the fall of my sophomore year of high school, I started researching how to learn about environmental engineering. I came across Columbia University’s High School Immersion Programs and found the Cities and Climate Change course. I was successful in my application to participate in this ten-week program during the spring of 2021. Each week…

March 26, 2022 I started rowing during the summer of 2019, heading into my freshman year of high school. During the summer weeks as a novice rower, I saw how poorly the Passaic River was being maintained. It was brown in color, garbage and dead fish floated in the water and covered the banks of…