Funded by the National Science Foundation, Fordham University, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, the program consists of both a social science research study and a youth development program. Members are chosen from New York city area high schools, and tutors are supplied by the University.

“We are taking the kids out of the classroom and putting them into nature. They are able to see the complexity between nature and human behavior through Project True and we hope that that will get them thinking about how everything is intertwined and how the decisions they make are connected to so many other things,” said program director Jason Aloisio.

This year, its participants include 50 high school students (coming from all boroughs of New York City as well as Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey), 13 Fordham undergraduate students, and three graduate students from Fordham’s biology department. They will conduct research all around New York City, working heavily with teams that are stationed at the Prospect Park Zoo, Central Park Zoo, and the Bronx Zoo.

Lexie Neffinger, an undergraduate senior and environmental science major at Fordham College at Rose Hill, saw many benefits in joining Project TRUE for the younger students, as well as herself.

“I wanted to jump into the field aspect of research, since I’ve mostly been doing research in the lab,” she said. “I think it’s great for New York City kids [to]see the intricate and really diverse green spaces that actually exist in the city. It’s not something that should be foreign to them, because they are here.”

Michael Romero, a junior at Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, was excited for his future endeavors with Project TRUE.

“It’s as a great opportunity to learn and see how things work, especially in ecology. With the research I do here, I hope to contribute to society [and]to the science world.”

At the end of their seven weeks, the students will present their research at the annual Bronx Science Consortium Poster Symposium, hosted at the Bronx Zoo on Sept. 27.

–Veronika Kero

Jason M. Aloisio, Ph.D., GSAS 17, has been awarded one of six Graduate Student Policy Awards (GSPA) from the Ecological Society of America (ESA).

Aloisio, who was chosen along with students from Princeton University, Michigan State University, University of Miami, University of California and Columbia University, will use the award to travel to Washington, D.C. later this month for policy and advocacy training. He won the award in January, when he was a student.

In addition to learning about the legislative process and federal science funding, Aloisio will hear from ecologists working in federal agencies. He will participate in Congressional Visits Day, a capitol hill event co-organized by ESA and sponsored by the Biological and Ecological Sciences Coalition.

There, Aloisio said he hopes to meet New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Congressman Adriano Espaillat, who represents New York’s 13th Congressional District.

Aloisio coordinates the urban ecology research immersion program Project TRUE (Teens Researching Urban Ecology) for the Wildlife Conservation Society. He co-developed the project, which prepares high school students to pursue degrees and careers in STEM fields, in 2011. It receives funding from the National Science Foundation.

He said he is eager to meet Espaillat because he lives in the congressman’s district and because Espaillat sits on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and a subcommittee focused on higher education.

For his doctoral degree Aloisio studied the ecology of green roof ecosystems,; he said he’s come to understand more fully the interconnectedness of policy and science.

“The Wildlife Conservation Society is widely involved with national and international regulations in different countries, and it’s become increasingly apparent how important it is to be involved in the policy process,” he said. “Decisions at the policy level have dramatic implications for conservation and the environment.”

ESA Executive Director Katherine McCarter said that by training ESA members to effectively communicate science to lawmakers, the gap between science and policy can be bridged and help fill the critical need for science-informed policy decisions.

“This valuable, hands-on experience provides these young ecologists with essential science communication skills that will enable them to successfully engage in the policy realm,” she said.

Jason Aloisio, a Fordham graduate student in biology, has parked his bike for the time being, but not before pedaling 400 miles to help save the planet.

Aloisio and Anthony Grizzi, a pharmacology graduate student at Thomas Jefferson University, left Fordham’s Rose Hill campus on Friday, July 30 to bike all the way to the 2010 Ecological Society of America annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA., which runs through Aug 6. They arrived three days later, on Monday evening, Aug. 2.

The theme of this year’s conference is global climate change, so Aloisio and Grizzi could think of no better way to make the point: they estimate that their decision to bike rather than drive saved approximately 420 lbs. in carbon dioxide emissions.

“We share two major passions; exploring the world . . . and seeking to better understand it,” said Aloisio. “We not only fuse these passions by viewing the countryside through a new perspective and gaining new insights at the ESA conference, but also bringing awareness to a global issue.”

The pair traveled through three states and climbed over 15,000 vertical feet. Along the way, they overcame five flat tires and “met lots of nice people, including a personal performance from some musicians in Gettysburg.”

Aloisio, who is in his second year of graduate school, is doing his research on rooftop ecology, studying green roofs as a way to integrate both function and biodiversity. Unfortunately, the need to complete his summer research means he can’t take three days to bike home. But, he is still doing his part by carpooling back with three other Fordham students.

J.S.