Cougar Spotlight: Alex Caratti

Alex Caratti is an enthusiastic student leader and a diligent activist at CSUSM who hopes to encourage sustainability and green thinking among his peers.

Alex is a third year student from Valley Center, CA and is majoring in Applied Physics. As the president and co-founder of the Sustainability Club, he is hoping to inspire all CSUSM students to take an active role in their community by committing to sustainable practices.

Why did you choose CSUSM?

I originally chose CSUSM because of the proximity to home and then I fell in love with the campus, the people and my major. Physics is a very robust major and I have learned so much. I also really like that the class sizes are pretty small so I get to have a lot of one-on-one time with my professors. The campus is so new so there is a lot of room to grow, take on new projects and initiatives, and be a part of things from the very beginning.

Do you feel like CSUSM has helped you grow?

CSUSM has helped me grow as a person, as a student and as a leader in many ways. Through contact with different people I was able to learn how to interact well with others, especially within O-Team [Orientation Team] and meeting incoming students and their families. As a student I have grown because my classes are challenging— I've had to work on my study habits and learn to think in different ways. I have also been able to grow as a leader because of the opportunities that I have had on this campus. I was fortunate enough to be able to co-found the Sustainability Club with my roommate, Danny, and since then the campus staff, faculty and students have been so supportive.

What organizations are you involved in on campus?

Besides being the president and co-founder of the Sustainability Club, I am also currently a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, O-Team, and the Student Philanthropy Council, and last year I was involved with USUAB [University Student Union Activities Board]. Right now I work at the Clarke Field House in the Outdoor Adventures department and I also play the tenor saxophone in the Jazz Band.

What are the goals of the Sustainability Club and what events are coming up?

We just finished with our Kick Butt event where we asked that maintenance employees not pick up cigarette butts around campus. Members of our club and other students then came together and picked up over 7,000 cigarette butts in just one hour. On April 16 we had the first installment of our new Sustainable Speaker Series and next Tuesday, April 21, there will be a film screening of "The Burden,” which discusses the U.S. military's attempt to move away from fossil fuels and their view of traditional energy sources as a big threat to national security. In the fall our club also plans to continue the Kill the Cup campaign to encourage students to stop using disposable cups and switch to reusable ones.

Why are you so interested in sustainability?

As the 1970’s Saudi oil minister, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani once said, "The Stone Age didn't end for lack of stone, and the oil age will end long before the world runs out of oil.”

When I learned that energy could be produced by the wind and the sun, I thought that was amazing and I wondered why everyone wasn't doing this. We have one planet and that planet doesn't have a reset button. Since this is something that I am passionate about and it is newer industry, I think it would be a great place to grow and help alter our habits and lifestyles.

What are your future goals?

My short-term goals are to continue to grow the Sustainability Club and bring sustainability to the forefront of students’ minds. Graduation is also a big goal of mine, which I hope to achieve within the next couple of years. As for long-term goals, I would like to use my physics degree to get working with sustainable technologies, an industry that is going to expand expotentially in the near future.