Columbia University Pre-College Program · Summer 2025
Four case studies from the program — click any frame to read it.
Harlem Growers
New York
This civic engagement visit to the original Harlem Growers location at 134th Street provided me first hand insights on how to build a blueprint for community stewardship.
Topics included hydroponic greenhouses, plant lifecycle, water and soil considerations, and composting. I left the visit developing a much stronger feel for food justice, human ecosystem impacts and sustainable city living.
Drought Tolerant Plants
Central Valley, CA
In this study, I and my team members explored what it would take for Central Valley farmers to shift toward drought tolerant crops weighing the water and soil tradeoffs against the biodiversity and resilience gains. We broke down the real costs involved, from drought resistant seed premiums and xeriscaping to the human costs of changing diets, local jobs, and farmer livelihoods.
We also looked at the ecosystem impact, like reduced water extraction helping Chinook salmon versus the risks of introducing non-native crops, and the policy forces behind it all, especially California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and Proposition 4.
My takeaway is that this transition offers real long-term benefits for food security and water resources, but it comes with upfront costs and community pushback that can’t be ignored.
Sunnyvale Wetlands
California
In this case study, I looked at Sunnyvale’s wetlands through four distinct areas — NASA Ames Moffett Airfield, Baylands Park, Moffett Park, and the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control Plant & Santa Clara Valley Water District ponds — and the problems each one faces, from decades-old groundwater contamination and invasive species to stormwater runoff and eroding levees. I mapped out the solutions already underway, like converting an old dumping ground into a biotic barrier and golf course, restoring tidal marsh habitat, and building horizontal levees that bring back native plants.
I also broke down the funding behind these efforts, which range from smaller $0.1–5M site investigations to large-scale groundwater and tidal restoration projects running $10–100M or more, led by organizations like the EPA, SF Bay Restoration Area, and the City of Sunnyvale, and the layered policies that protect this land — from the federal Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act to state laws like CEQA and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, down to local plans like the Sunnyvale Climate Action Playbook.
My takeaway is that restoring these wetlands pays off in lower flood risk, lower municipal water treatment costs, and real community well-being, while leaving them degraded puts thousands of residents — especially low-income and marginalized communities — at greater risk.
Bus Rapid Transit
Curitiba, Brazil
Curitiba, Brazil, Brazil’s 9th-largest city, moves 2.3 million riders a day on remarkably little energy. In this research, I along with my team members, dig into the policy decisions behind it: Mayor Jaime Lerner’s 1970s choice to build a Bus Rapid Transit network instead of a subway, since it could cover ten times the area for a fraction of the cost, and the federal and state mandates that have since pushed the fleet toward biodiesel and electric buses. I walk through the economics (BRT costs a fraction of a metro system to build and run), the environmental payoff (27 million fewer car trips and a 25% cut in CO2 emissions each year), and the social wins for low-income riders and people with disabilities. My conclusion: despite real tradeoffs like overcrowding and the environmental cost of battery production, Curitiba’s system is a genuine model other cities can learn from.