In the past, JJ motivated and coordinated college students to take action in their local communities. At UC Santa Barbara, JJ worked with other student environmental activists to connect outdoor/environmental groups on the UCSB campus to strengthen campus-wide support on specific environmental projects.  JJ served as outreach chair on the Environmental Affairs Board to establish this network with groups such as, CalPirg, Surfrider, Environmental Affairs Board (EAB), and the Excursion Club. 

JJ also helped erect another environmental student group at UCSB, called “Ecologic,” to establish a link between the recreational activities and preservation of the environment that these activities take place in. While short lived, Ecologic, engaged in many trail clean ups, survival wilderness clinics, and leave no trace workshops.

In addition to his extracurricular activites, JJ applied his environmental passions to his UCSB courses. Although as a Chemical Engineering student, he found it very difficult to visualize a direct environmental connection to concepts like linear algebra and partial differential equations.

During the 2003 summer, he participated in the Wildland Studies, Environmental Program, Big Sur, where he performed chemical & biological tests on streams, soil, and surf affecting the area’s creeks. And during the 2004 summer, he participated in the National Science Foundation’s University of New Mexico civil engineering program, where he analyzed stability, soil characteristics, and physical properties of Rio Grande.

In the summer of 2006, JJ co-managed the “Change Your Way Tour,” a tour that traveled to fourteen universities across the west coast to inspire and empower university students to the positives of living more sustainable lifestyles by taking them on educational outdoor retreats, facilitating leadership workshops, and screening powerful environmental short films.

In 2007, JJ led a group of four adventurers to Alaska on a journey to discover the hurdles to sustainable travel. The adventurers traveled thousands of miles, meeting hundreds of people, and discovered many obstacles to traveling green. The journey received high praise from locals and the trip helped expose some pressing environmental concerns facing some of the British Columbia rural areas. Please refer to this link to read about the journey in the news.

In 2008, JJ focused his energy to “bringing green to the screen,” in other words, exposing people to the environment through TV-internet media. He produced and hosted the “Think Green Live Green Challenge,” an interactive competition to get people thinking green.  In the same year, JJ produced and hosted an eco-news show, “Flat Broke and Green.”  Please see TV-Show Host for more information.