Our awesome volunteers: Michael Jarosz

1)         How long have you been volunteering for WWF?
I started with the WWF Vancouver Triathlon in 2010. I liked it so much that I came back this year.

(c) Allen Cheng
2)         What was your involvement with the Triathlon?
A year ago I got involved in the majority of the roles available. But this year, due to time constraints and other commitments, I just volunteered as Bike Marshal Captain.
3)         What about the event inspired you to participate?
It is one of the few big sporting events in the core of Vancouver, and best of all, it goes towards a good cause.
4)         What do you do for a living, hobbies, and fun?
I recently graduated from the Entrepreneurship program at BCIT and I am currently on a gap year: I studied at summer school in Austria, visited family in Poland, studied at summer school at the London School of Economics, and WWOOFed in Switzerland. I am currently volunteering in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, and still have a microfinance internship in India and WWOOFing in India left on my itinerary.
After my gap year, I plan to go back to LSE and earn a BSc in Economics. Then I plan to go into banking or enter the field of development economics.
Hobbies and fun include sports such as weight lifting, biking, martial arts, trying new activities rafting, scuba diving, surfing, parachuting, forro dance, reading and watching documentaries, writing (travel journal, blog), website development – I’m working on my own personal site now, photography, and watching entertainment from India (Bollywood, Ramayan).
5)         What do you do in your daily life to be more sustainable?
The biggest thing I can think of is the fact that I’m vegetarian. Meat production is economically and environmentally inefficient (for example, we end up with a small fraction – usually no more than one-third and sometimes as little as one-tenth – of the food value that is fed to farm animals). On top of that, it is also extremely cruel and barbaric.
Other things I do to be more sustainable: I go through every inconvenience imaginable to recycle, I use reusable shopping bags, I get my water from a filter (not bottled water), and I am trying out LED bulbs at home.
6)         Have you participated in other athletic events before?
I volunteered with the BG Vancouver Triathlon back in high school, as well as the first annual RBC GranFondo in 2010.