“An Unsustainable Culture: Contributing Factors to the American Fertility Crisis"

After reading a National Geographic article when he was 10, Joseph Baranoski II learned that in the year 2050, there will be a larger population of 60 year olds than that of 10 years old–this statistic stuck with him for many years. When he came into freshman year and was given the opportunity to research any topic in his Honors English 101 class, Joseph knew that he wanted to investigate the topic of fertility in different demographics, which he argues does not get the attention in society it requires.

There is a lot of existing research on the topic of factors contributing to the American fertility crisis, which made his research process smooth in terms of review. Baranoski used several sources that he was previously familiar with, but he also implemented a lot of sources using JSTOR and Mullen Library, which were both very helpful to him during his research. 

Something interesting Baranoski learned was how important religion is when determining the number of children a person may have. One source he found said nearly 100% of the decline in fertility is driven by a decline in religion, which confirmed what Baranoski had presumed beforehand. 

Baranoski’s ENG 101 professor, Dr. Veronica Fair, was the one who suggested that he submit his paper to Inventio, and she also helped him with some revisions before it was ready to submit. 

Baranoski hopes that his paper will cause people to consider how important children are to society, how important it is for people to have children, and for our population to grow. While he doesn’t expect one paper to change people’s opinions, he hopes that people will realize that having children is more important than they once would have thought. 

Currently, Baranoski is a sophomore math major, expecting to graduate in 2028, who is involved with Campus Ministry and has hopes of potentially pursuing a PhD in the future.

Read Joseph's piece, "An Unsustainable Culture: Contributing Factors to the American Fertility Crisis", in the upcoming issue of Inventio Volume 10!