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Jason helped co-found the environmental club at his high school and he came to TCNJ looking to be involved in similar activities. Fast forward to his last year of college: he is the president of Water Watch, a club dedicated to “helping maintain not only the environment on campus, but in our local area as well,” according to their website. Jason explained that “if you don’t seek those types of organizations out,” then it becomes to difficult to make a difference.
“So I wanted to be with other people who cared about the environment.”
“Why do you care about the environment?”
“I don’t understand why people don’t care about the environment. Because it literally plays a role in every single aspect of any thing in this world. Because it is the world.
I’m specifically interested in how the environment affects human health. “
“Why are you pursuing this field of study?”
“I’ve always wanted to help people. I always thought about being a doctor. Then I came here and it was a week into my bio theme classes and it just was not interesting to me at all.
I didn’t want to be a doctor anymore because I realized that I didn’t want to help people through medicine. I wanted to be that support for them and help them through probably one of the most vulnerable times in their life.”
“What would be your ideal job? Not necessarily specific tasks, but what is the framework you hope to get to?”
“I think from all the positions that I have been lucky to find myself in, I realized that I like helping people see their potential.
I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And then helping [students] realize ‘you know what you’re doing, you know what you’re talking about, you’re fully capable of it,’ is the best thing.”
“What is your worst fear? And how do you hope to overcome it?”
“Complacency. I’m always afraid that I’m just going to get stuck doing something. I guess that’s why graduation is kind of scary because if you don’t have something lined up, there’s just that whole abyss of nothing.”
“What’s beautiful about today?”
“Realizing there’s still so much time left to do things. For seniors (Class of 2015), it’s not the end all, be all come May.
Today I had some time to chill out; I realized that just because graduation comes doesn’t means that that’s it. Whatever you’ve accomplished in these last four years, that’s not going to define you.
You should use that experience to get to where you want to go. Today is one of those good days where I’m feeling more optimistic. But I prefer pragmatism.”
Story and Interview by Jack Meyers
Photography by Jaryd Frankel