Valuing ‘the miracle of our home’

By Emily Chaffins -

MIAMI | As a child, Joshua Fernandez was always drawn to exploring the outdoors. Little did he know how far his passion for the open air would take him. 

A South Florida native, Fernandez studied first at Our Lady of the Lakes School in Miami Lakes and later at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, where he fully embraced the potential of using his love for the natural world to transform lives. 

As a freshman, Fernandez joined Columbus’ Environmental Club. He was amazed when students repurposed materials from the school’s recycling bins to create lanyards out of what was once waste. 

In fall 2024, during his senior year, Fernandez was promoted to club president. He took charge of the club’s existing initiative, Recycled Hope, teaming up with Campus for GREEN and Castaways Against Cancer. The Environmental Club created Recycled Hope baseball caps, made from Columbus’ recycled water bottles, with the help of Campus for GREEN. Castaways Against Cancer then provided these caps to the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center for patients’ use. 

“Columbus now has what’s called a circular economy for our water bottles, and Josh has been a big part of this,” explained Christine Taylor, a science teacher and Environmental Club moderator at Columbus. “At Columbus, you don’t throw away a plastic water bottle. You empty it and put it in the recycle bin… Campus for GREEN, a subsidiary of Geared for GREEN, takes those bottles, shreds them and melts them down to the original plastic pellets. Then, they make objects from them.” 

The caps were donated to Castaways Against Cancer in November 2024. 

That winter, the Environmental Club launched its next big project: the Battle of the Bins recycling competition. Facing off against Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, the two schools’ homerooms endeavored to salvage the most plastic water bottles. The prize: a trophy crafted from a portion of the reused bottles and recycled materials, plus the losing school would treat the victors to donuts. 

After about two months, Lourdes Academy won by less than one pound. In May 2025, Columbus honored them with the trophy and also provided donuts – “a ‘sweet’ thing to do,” as Taylor joked. 

However, “the whole main purpose,” said Fernandez, “was for more students to get into a regular habit of recycling in school and in their daily lives.” 

In January 2025, Fernandez tackled one of his most challenging projects yet: he applied for a $2,000 ecology grant for a sustainability project to construct new school benches from recycled plastic. This required him to produce a grant proposal for the consideration of the Marist Brothers USA Province. Fernandez drew upon Laudato Si’. 

As a Marist school, Columbus High belongs to the national Marist Green Team environmental organization. Fernandez began serving as a national Green Team Leader, “discussing our Marist values and talking about Laudato Si’ and integrating the pope’s message into our own campuses.” 

Fernandez also studied Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, in Taylor’s AP Environmental Science class. This year marks the encyclical’s 10th anniversary. 

“The encyclical is a call to action to care for our common home,” said Taylor. “Pope Francis was very much a pope of the people, and he saw that people who are less fortunate often suffer the most because of environmental issues and concerns.” 

She added, “We’ve put so many barriers between us and God’s creation that we don’t respect or revere it anymore. We walk on it with the treads of our shoes and don’t realize the miracle and gift that soil is… We’ve lost the wonder for the miracle of our home.” 

Later that spring, Fernandez's proposal, based on the Laudato Si' message was awarded the grant. 

“These benches are a really big need in our school, because all throughout the hallways, there are no places for students to sit,” he said. “After school, when the kids are waiting for parents to pick them up or are switching periods, you’ll see kids lying and sitting on the floor. We thought it would be a good idea to implement these benches through a sustainability program.” 

He added, “We incorporated the Laudato Si’ encyclical, saying… we must care for our common home by not only taking care of the environment by using the plastic materials to make benches, but also using it to take care of our students, even in a small way, by giving them a place to sit.” 

He also noted the project brings environmental issues to students’ attention. “It’s promoting an ecological education,” he said. “We plan to put a plaque near the benches that teaches students how they were made, so maybe the students can be inspired to become more involved with sustainability.”

“The benches are super expensive to make,” said Taylor. “In front of their stores, Publix has areas where you can return Publix grocery bags. Those grocery bags are given to Geared for GREEN, and they make these benches from those grocery bags. So the plastic never ends up in the landfill; it ends up in the benches.” 

“The grant buys two benches, and Columbus matched the amount, so they bought four,” she explained. 

The new seating will replace disused locker space before the summer is over. 

Now a class of ’25 graduate, Fernandez is motivated to continue his sustainability efforts. “My favorite part of being president was seeing the amount of change and impact I could bring. Not only to people inside our school with the benches and the Battle of the Bins, seeing the amount of recycled material we collected, but also the change outside with cancer patients,” he said. “I love helping people. It’s what I want to do long term.” 

Fernandez will attend the University of Miami in Coral Gables in fall 2025 and “looks to join all the environmental clubs that UM has to offer.” A first-generation college student, he is especially interested in shark conservation research and plans to continue growing Recycled Hope, eager to get UM students involved. 

As for his future career, Fernandez aspires to become a neuroradiologist. 

“It warms my heart to know we have students and young people like Josh, who have both the calling and the capacity, and are blessed to have the ability to make a difference,” said Taylor.