Introduction to Environmental Careers and Internships - Case Study Example

Draft Academic Plan 

1. Planners (help communities make decisions about present and future construction, recreation, and transportation)
2. Environmental educators and communicators
3. Environmental protection & energy (air, water, haz/solid, waste)
4. Natural resource management (land, water, parks, forests, wildlife)

1. Skill base (capabilities that can be developed)
2. General skills (basic skills)
3. Preferred skills (use for career)
4. Gap (skills don’t possess)

1. Assess interests
2. Define values
3. Define career values
4. Assess skills
5. Make a connection between career & education interests and values and skills
6. Mapping out direction (3 months? 6 months? 1 year?)
7. Strategies to implement (counselor, resume, internship, degree)

Career Options

            Kelly Lerner spoke about her career plan as an architect. A career plan uses two important concepts: finding a passion and values that are important. These two perceptions can contain similar ideas on most occasions. However, the intent of these two concepts is what is most important.

            Mike Kutilek spoke about his experience and highlighted Conservation and Organismal Biology at San Jose State University. He gave a background on San Jose State University as a whole but mostly focused on biology programs. He also talked about career options for people who are qualified in conservation and organismal biology.

Highlight University Program 

            Dr. Joan Stafford talked about some of the environmental design courses offered at Cal Poly. A video showed some examples of houses that had been designed with the environment in mind. Also, some of her own personal examples with dealing with nonprofit organizations were mentioned. Julie Phillips asked what the relationship was between the college of environmental design and the center. Dr. Joan Stafford replied that the college handled all the academic side of things, while the center was allowed to be more hands-on. 

Four Steps to a Great Internship 

1. Know what you want from your internship (if there is no purpose or end goal in mind, then you should not be doing it). The student should know where they are going rather than their career guidance counselor. Four types of learning that you should seek: Skills (what do you want to improve?), Content Knowledge (should emerge with more knowledge in that particular field), Organizational Knowledge (how involved are you in the key decisions that the organization has to make), and Learning about Professional Life (how it feels to be working in your chosen field).