As part of Bellarmine’s 2025 Justice Summit, which centered on environmental and climate justice, Luis Szarindar ‘27 and Nate John ‘27 led a “Pedal Power” breakout session to benefit the San Jose community and educate their peers on sustainable modes of transportation.
During the session, Luis and Nate taught fellow Bells about basic bike parts and maintenance while repairing bikes they collected from community members prior to the Justice Summit. The breakout session was the culmination of a weeks-long effort to solicit bike donations and collect the parts needed to service them.
“We have always loved riding bikes, and a skill that comes with loving to ride is loving to work on and fix your bike,” says Luis. “We always wanted to share this love with other people, and when we heard we could teach Bellarmine students how to fix bikes AND have a positive impact on the community by doing it, we got to work putting out announcements on social media asking for bikes, picking them up, doing inventories for the parts we needed, and communicating our progress to Mr. Desumala right up until the day of the Justice Summit.”
The following week, Luis and Nate arranged to donate 30 repaired bikes to Sacred Heart Community Service, where they’ll be distributed, free of charge, to community members in need of alternative means of transportation.
In line with the Justice Summit’s intention to educate Bellarmine students about the climate crisis and inspire action to counteract it, the Pedal Power breakout session was a salient example of the impact Bells can make within their community.
“If we can make people see riding a bike, scooter, or public transportation as a feasible way to get around, that will reduce emissions from transportation,” Luis adds. “The first way to do this is to demonstrate that these forms of transportation aren’t as scary as they look, that they’re practical, and that they’re fun to use. I hope our breakout room communicated that message to our fellow students and staff.”