There’s an agricultural paradise in the middle of bustling Queens complete with a barn, greenhouse, orchard, and poultry house. It’s land maintained by John Bowne High School, which boasts a nationally recognized agricultural program. It was there, as a student, that Christopher Arias nurtured an interest in nature that blossomed into a serious passion for urban sustainability and the environment. Arias is now a senior at Brooklyn College, where he majors in urban sustainability. Over the years, he has built upon his on-the-ground experiences through a number of academic fellowships and mentorship programs—most notably the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, the Tow Mentoring Initiative, and the Kurz Undergraduate Research Assistantship, researching environmental justice, self-determination, resilience, and post-disaster recovery. After working with faculty and mentors through these programs, Arias fell in love with academic scholarship and now has his sights set on continuing his education with a doctoral program in environmental social sciences. He also thinks it’s necessary to supplement his academic career with activities outside of the classroom. As president of the Puerto Rican Alliance, Arias cultivates a welcoming space for students of color and queer people to come together in community. Arias also connected with GrowNYC, a New York City–based environmental organization that provides green spaces, food-scrap drop-offs, fresh food access via its Greenmarket network, and sustainability-related educational opportunities. When the organization expressed interest in building a compost site near campus, he reached out to them, stayed in touch, and put in his application when the time came for the organization to put out a call. Now a compost coordinator for the organization, Arias sets up food-scrap drop-off sites throughout the city while speaking with members of the community about composting, sustainability, and any other environment-related topics that arise. “I try to meet people where they’re at,” he says, describing his interactions with the people he encounters on site. Though he observes that the culture of sustainability in New York is not as strong as it is in other places in the country, he says that the potential challenge makes him “more excited to have this opportunity to reach people and connect with them. I believe everyone has a relationship to the environment, whether they actively think about it or not.”
