Vincent Irizarry

I am currently interested in access to urban parks and conservation educational programs for youth. I am inspired by my experiences working, and living near urban parks and public spaces. I hold my Bachelor's of the Arts in Anthropology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, and I am interested in dismantling the inequalities in urban parks.  I have an interest in improvements on physical location of parks, awareness of access to open spaces, accessibility to park space for diverse residents who range in socio-economic class, age, and mobility. I enjoy using my interpersonal skills to seek members of the community and prescribe solutions to the community board and other organizations based on community member conversations. In addition to my degree from John Jay College, I studied Environmental Studies, and Urban Studies at Queens College in New York. Through my experiences at Queens College, I studied Environmental Science in relation to my local urban environment, and community engagement activities with the Urban Studies department working with grassroots environmental organizations and local Queens community boards on sustainability solutions in neighborhood gardens. In addition, I am interested in food, the connection that we all have with food, and the quality of food. I have pursued citizen science research in food and healthy eating. A proponent of my strong interest in food is my Italian-American community and Latino Communities in Queens, New York where I have been introduced to regional connections to meals, ingredients, and recipes. My connection with my community and family history has interested me in peoples connection to physical spaces and neighborhoods.