John Osborn
MPS Class of 2025, Global Development
- Pronouns: He/him
- Grand challenge: Life and vocational skills learning programs for societally disadvantaged populations
- Where he considers home: Rochester, NY, USA
- Connect: jo397 [at] cornell.edu (Email )
John currently works in the Controlled Environment Agriculture group in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. He has been involved in aquaculture and aquaponics for over 14 years. John conducts aquaculture and aquaponics research and provides educational support in aquaculture and aquaponics to Cornell students as well as extension information services to New York individuals and groups.
John holds a B.S. from Syracuse University and has a multi-decade background in business development and management including with socially focused empowerment activities. John has been immersed in the issues of incarceration and the impacts of incarceration on individuals, families and communities for over a decade. John is committed to using his MPS studies in Global Development to identify and evaluate the most effective programs to assist economically and/or educationally disadvantaged and justice system-involved individuals to stabilize, learn and personally grow so they can improve their economic, social, and personal well-being in an effort to break the cycle of poverty and justice system involvement.
As an MPS student in Global Development at Cornell, John’s studies will center on identifying and understanding the strengths and drawbacks of immersive residential whole-life change programs that utilize peer-to-peer accountability models. John’s goal is to identify, enhance and implement personal development programs and curricula that can be utilized throughout the U.S. and globally.
John seeks to use CEA agriculture, specifically urban agriculture/aquaponics, as a cornerstone of community and workforce development programs to train and shape pro-social decisions and habits with the goal of enhancing the lives of individuals, families and communities.