Akureyri, Iceland, is located right off the coast of the Norwegian Sea -a scenic region of cliffs, volcanoes and geysers. The town’s tourist hotspots include the puffin burrows on the side of the cliffs, where the birds make their homes.

Tourists have died trying to capture this natural scene on their cameras, moving so close to the edge they fall off. While visiting the cliffs during a study abroad program, Patrick Carroll ignored the ‘beware’ sign, which depicted a man falling off a cliff, and inched closer than anyone should.

‘It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever done,’ Carroll admits. ‘But it was so worth it with the photos I got.’

Carroll, a senior environmental studies student at the State of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, traveled to Iceland last summer to take courses at the University of Akureyri, where he studied energy sustainability. Research abroad is one of Carroll’s activities as a college student. He is also president of the Environmental Studies Student Organization.

Now, he’s preparing to take on his next challenge: law school.

Carroll hopes to revolutionize environmental policy and plans to pursue a three-year environmental law program at Pace University this fall. There could be thousands of ideas for policy change in scientific papers, but lawyers are the ones who push these ideas to become a reality, he said.

‘Policy needs to beget the science, but the science can only be implemented when the policymakers understand it,’ he said.

Carroll’s parents originally thought he would end up being a musician. He was a trumpet player, said Carroll’s father, Jim. He played in the marching band at his high school in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and traveled to festivals across the country with his school’s jazz band, Jazz Machine. As a member of all-state orchestra, Carroll participated in New York State School Music Association competitions.

‘He’s always been incredibly driven, he really could have pursued anything,’ said Carroll’s mother, Susan. ‘Whenever he puts his mind into something, he does it well.’

Upon entering ESF, Carroll started off as a conservation biology major but quickly realized he wanted to take more of an environmental policy or law track, which would delve more into human-nature interaction.

Carroll then joinedEnvironmental Studies Student Organization his freshman year. Environmental studies is a broad major, covering three focuses: policy and law; communications, culture and writing; and the biological science aspect of the environment. The organization aims to bring the three differences together through community service and campus awareness.

ESSO led to what Carroll considers his greatest accomplishment in college: helping organize the Moving Planet Getting to 350 Rally.

The rally, which occurred on an alumni day in the fall, brought attention to the need to reduce fossil fuel dependence and carbon dioxide emissions.

Carroll wanted to take a photograph of people forming a large ‘350’ to symbolize the importance of bringing carbon dioxide emissions back to 350 parts per million. Participants at the rally also signed pledges of how they would reduce energy consumption, such as by switching out their light bulbs.

Carroll set off to Iceland in the summer of 2010, after coming across the School for International Training’s program in Akureyri and realizing the opportunity he would have to learn different views on geothermal and hydroelectrical energy.

The town had a rocky terrain that Carroll would hike through and large, open fields of basalt.

 ‘Think of a volcanic version of something you’d see in ‘Lord of the Rings,” he said, smiling.

While abroad, he studied what Iceland was doing to become completely sustainable and studied the importance of balancing the maritime emissions of the shipping industry with transportation emissions from personal automobiles.

He spokewith representatives and attorneys across the country, compiling their opinions on sustainability for a paper. He hopes to instigate a conversation between local, regional and national stakeholders about a plan to lessen the continuation of environmental hazards.

‘We were thrilled he went there,’ said his father, Jim. ‘It was a wonderful experience for him. He came back even more focused and with different views from another country.’

For the most part, Carroll is excited for law school and the new chapter of his life.

‘I feel like I’m in some sort of limbo period,’ he said. ‘I can’t really do what I want in terms of becoming an environmental attorney until I get my law degree. It’s the next part of my life I want to get to.’

Dorian Kessler, Carroll’s close friend and a senior environmental science major, said he knew Carroll would be successful when he met him at their freshman year orientation.

‘Patrick’s on a different kind of caliber,’ Kessler said. ‘He focuses in whatever it is he needs to do and works hard at it. I’m just happy his hard work will finally pay off, no matter what he decides to do.’

meltagou@syr.edu

Published on April 29, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Marwa: meltagou@syr.edu | @marwaeltagouri