Joe Harrity is a sophomore at Cornell College. He grew up in Minneapolis and still thinks of it as home. Between high school and college, Joe took a year to serve full-time in San Antonio, Texas, with City Year (an AmeriCorps program), working at a grade school in a low income neighborhood with at-risk kids. At Cornell he’s pursuing an individualized major he calls “Human population, environmental degradation, and social strife.” Environmental issues are a major concern of his, and he considers himself an environmentalist. “This is a big reason I’m going to be spending my summer at Abbe Hills,” Joe says. “I want to learn more about both sustainable agriculture techniques and about creating successful local and community-focused enterprises, which I see as essential tools in environmental stewardship.”
Aside from academic interests, Joe likes
physical labor (though he’s never worked on a farm before),
activism, biking, outdoor activities, reading and writing, spending
time with friends, and trying to make the world a better place.