MS. JURGENSEN & HER CAREER

When and why did you decide to pursue an environmental career?
I decided during my freshman year in college. I was looking through the university course catalog at the descriptions of classes required for each major. I realized I was most interested in the environmental and natural resources courses, so I decided to make it my major and see where it led. Ten years later, I am still in the field.

Tell us about how your career has unfolded so far. Where did it begin? How did you find yourself in environmental education at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies?
In my senior year of undergraduate school at the University of Rhode Island (Department of Natural Resources Science), I did an internship with an environmental consulting firm to get some concrete experience. I was hired by that firm for a seasonal position the summer following my graduation.

When I moved to Pittsburgh in the fall, I started looking for jobs as an environmental consultant. I found that most environmental consulting positions were with engineering companies. I made a list and simply went door-to-door with my resume in hand. I ended up finding a job within a month with a transportation engineering company as an environmental scientist.

I worked there for two years and began to realize that consulting was not for me; it seemed I was on the wrong side of the fence, and the daily full-time routine really began to wear on me. I decided to begin graduate school with a focus in ecology education, as I thought it would better suit my career and lifestyle needs.

The decision felt right immediately. I attended Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff (Master of Arts in Teaching) because I found a professor there whose work interested me. Upon graduating, I found a job a few months later with the Institute of Ecosystem Studies as the Undergraduate Education Program Leader. I have been with IES for almost a year.

Your specialty within the field of environmental education is ecology? Why did you choose it? How did you discover that you had a talent for the field?
I chose to specialize in the field of ecology because the more I learned about it, the more I loved it, in a scientific and artistic way. Scientifically, the kinds of questions that are asked in the field of ecology seem the most meaningful to me toward learning more about the natural world and thus, preserving what we can. Artistically, I have been deeply drawn to the beauty of the prose of writers who write about the natural world.

Who or what were the biggest inspirations for your career?
My supervisor in Pittsburgh, who made me laugh and encouraged me to follow my dreams and not get caught in the security of a well-paying position; my education professor in graduate school; writers who beautifully articulate the beauty of the natural world, such as Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams, and Barbara Kingsolver; and my husband for exploring the outdoors with me and for his constant support.

What do you enjoy most and least about your job with IES?
I most enjoy working on programs that I believe are meaningful and valuable in the world. I also enjoy the autonomy and responsibility inherent in my position. I am not particularly fond of the few "crunch" times during the year when responsibilities pile up to a barely manageable level.

THE ACTUAL WORK

Tell us about what you do. What is your position and what are your main responsibilities as Undergraduate Education Program Leader for IES?
I help run the undergraduate education programs at IES of which there are two - Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and Strategies for Ecology Education, Development and Sustainability (SEEDS). The REU program brings ten undergraduate students to IES for a 12-week summer program where students conduct their own ecological investigation, from making observations and asking a question to writing and publishing their findings in the IES Occasional Publication, with the help of a mentor scientist. REU students also participate in other program activities including a Research-In-Context and Research Strategies seminar series that are aimed at providing students with a holistic understanding of the scientific process.

SEEDS aims to capture and cultivate the interest of undergraduate minority students in the field of ecology. IES is helping to run this program in collaboration with the United Negro College Fund and the Ecological Society of America. We currently work with Historically Black Colleges and Universities by (1) sub granting our grant (funded by the Mellon Foundation) to them for school based activities such as campus recruitment efforts and supporting innovative ecology courses and (2) project-wide activities such as sending faculty and students from all schools to the ESA annual meeting and offering faculty workshops and student field trips where faculty and students from all schools participate.

My specific responsibilities on these programs are very diverse. For REU, I help facilitate the application process, contact students, and arrange the program schedule by getting speakers for seminars and for the Forum on Opportunities in Education. I am also assessing the program and writing several papers about our findings and presenting at the annual ESA meeting. For SEEDS, I plan logistics and agendas for faculty workshops, student field trips, and SEEDS activities at the ESA meeting. I am also assessing the SEEDS program and writing several papers.

Describe a typical day at work for you. How much time do you spend in the office, in the field, in the classroom?
I spend most of my time on the computer. I work off-site during the school year from my home in Flagstaff, AZ (which requires a great deal of e-mailing) and work from the IES office during the summer. I travel quite a bit also, mostly for the SEEDS program. I travel to the annual Ecological Society of America meeting, SEEDS schools to conduct site visits, SEEDS faculty development workshops (this year at Paine College in Augusta, GA), SEEDS student field trips (Great Smokey Mountain National Park and Oak Ridge National Laboratory).

Tell us about where you work. How many people work in your office? What's the atmosphere?
From September to mid-May, I work off-site in Flagstaff. From mid-May to September, I work at the IES office in Millbrook, NY. IES is a great atmosphere to work in and an unbelievably humanitarian organization. They are wonderfully accommodating with their employees, and the atmosphere is quite positive. I work in the education section, which is a separate building from the main IES headquarters. There are approximately 20 people in education, and approximately 100 total at IES.

How important is it to create and maintain relationships within the field? What are the best ways to do it?
It is of vital importance. The best way to do it is to seek out help when you need it, even if someone is not able to answer your question, they can often help guide you to someone who will. Always thank people for helping.

EDUCATION INFORMATION & ADVICE

What kinds of jobs are available for those graduating with a degree in environmental education?
Jobs with field schools, interpretation for governmental agencies, or program coordinator positions, such as mine. If students are also graduating with their teaching credentials, there are teaching jobs in public school districts as well.

What's the pay scale for an educator in the environmental field just starting a career? How about for those at the senior level?
I'd say from the mid $20s to about $50,000. Not a ton, but it could also offer a potentially incredible life-style.

What are the best ways to find a job in environmental education?
Don't be shy. Reach out and make contacts. Do internships in college. For example, I did an internship in environmental consulting in college and my supervisor there provided me with a list of consultants in the city to which I was moving because he had contacts there. I simply went around to each firm on the list and walked into the office with my resume, asking for the contact person I was given. This often may have been the president of the firm, but I'd ask anyway. If I couldn't see her or him, I'd just leave it with the receptionist. That was how I ended up getting my first job.

How is the job market right now? How do you think it will be in the next five years? 10 years?
I think the job market is pretty open, especially for women and minorities, as people are keen on diversifying the field.

What are the hottest specialties within the field of environmental education right now? What do you think they will be in the next 10 years?
Environmental education that will be meaningful for diverse populations in different geographic populations. I think the cultural component of environmental education will be key in the future.

JOB INFORMATION & ADVICE

What degree(s) do you hold? What did you like and dislike about your environmentally-related education?
BS in Environmental Science, MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) in Biology. I enjoyed the broadness of my environmental science degree that enabled me to explore many different sciences. I wish that more of my courses had been inquiry-based instead of lectures; I think I would have learned the material better.

Did your education prepare you for what you actually do now? If not, could you have done anything differently?
Yes, I felt prepared for my current career. The internships were key experiences because they provided me with professional experience to put on my resume when I would have had nothing else to add other than waiting tables, etc. Internships also gave me a taste for what different types of work in the environmental field would be like, since it is so broad and I didn't know where to start. Upon graduating, I looked for a job in the environmental consulting field because I enjoyed my consulting internship better than my government agency one. That didn't turn out to be the field for me either, but at least I was able to get paid to figure that out.

If I could have done something differently, I would have had more of a multidisciplinary focus in school. I wish I had more courses in the social sciences and the humanities.

What factors should prospective environmental education students consider when choosing a program?
I'd suggest that they look at the work that people in that program are doing and consider whether it is progressive and interesting to the student.

What advice can you give to prospective students thinking about an education and career as an environmental educator?
Be progressive. Lecture-based science education is dull. The best progressive examples of environmental education programs in my opinion are ones that include a cultural component. For example, the Minorities at Sea Together (MAST) program run out of Hampton University enables 12 students to take a three-week sailing trip on the Chesapeake Bay studying marine science, policy, and African American and Native American heritage.

Based on what you hear in the industry, what do you think are the most respected programs for environmental education that really make a difference to students who graduate from these schools? Does it make a difference in the industry to graduate from a prestigious school?
I'm sure there are many good schools. I would suggest that the student find science/environmental education professional journals, find the articles that interest them most, and note who wrote the article and what school that person is from.

I think the professors at schools are of far more importance, whether they are at a prestigious school or not.

INDUSTRY TRENDS

What are some trends that you see in the field of environmental education that might help prospective students?
Environmental education that is culturally appropriate. Unfortunately, there are not many example of environmental education that is genuinely culturally appropriate. I know of good programs in restoration ecology, for example, that have a cultural component that is valued as much as the science component is, such as work done at the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University. And I know of good environmental education programs, but none that consider the audience's cultural background in the programs. However, such program could exist and I don't know of them, but either way, we need more...

How have computers and the Internet affected the everyday life of an environmental educator?
More resources are available, distance education is possible, and telecommuting is possible. There are some interesting computer modeling programs available in the field also.

If you have any questions related to careers and education in environmental education, you may contact Ms. Jurgensen at Jurgensen-ArmstrongM@ecostudies.org.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For more information about the educational and career outlook for Ecology majors, click here.

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