Owen Volk

Planet Forward Correspondent | SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry

Owen has an associates degree in Environmental Technology from Onondaga Community College and is currently a junior at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y. He is majoring in Environmental Studies with a focus in policy and communications.

Growing up with two parents working in the environmental field, he has always been environmentally minded and inspired to improve the planet. In 2011, he traveled to Kenya on his first mission trip where he and a team of others helped to finish the construction of a school. Following the completion of that project he traveled to Ghana in 2013 where he started building a new primary school building, and upon returning in 2015, finished it. He also made a trip to the El Salvadorian organization Young Life in 2016 where they worked on a project to put in a water system for a few villages where they had no access to running water sources. He is currently involved with a project to help bring solar powered electrical sources to the rural villages in Ghana. These experiences helped to shape his worldview, and raised his interests in how international countries coexist in the environment.

Some of his interests surround the concept of environmental justice. He is particularly intrigued with the environmental and justice impacts of the readily growing and updating infrastructure across the country, the implementation and use of solar energy both throughout the United States and internationally, and the connection of the environment and Indigenous communities and the threats we have made to those relationships.

Post-college, he has aspirations to work towards a law degree, as well as continue to produce environmental media to continue educating and inspiring others.