New Resources in the EcoLeaders Career Center

In 2015, the National Wildlife Federation EcoLeaders team launched a Career Center designed to inspire and educate college students, young professionals, and high school graduates to plan rewarding, sustainable careers for themselves and to make the connections to bring those plans into fruition. Since then, the resources, tools, webinars, and interviews have made the Career Center a go-to site for anyone planning a sustainable career.

One of the first resources we developed is a series of Career Sector Outlooks providing information about degrees and certifications, employment and salary statistics, as well as project examples and professional insights for 10 different sectors of the green workforce.

Christina Lopez NWF Labor Analyst Fellow

Over the Fall 2017 semester, our Labor Analyst Fellow, Christina Lopez, has worked on updating each of these Career Sector Outlooks as well as researching and writing outlooks for three additional career sectors: Education and Awareness, Governance and Policy, and Outdoor Recreation. The addition of these resources represent the growth of the EcoLeader community, the breadth of the project goals that EcoLeaders are advancing on their school campuses and in their communities, and the career aspirations that the EcoLeaders program supports. Check out the new Career Sector Outlooks here (note that access to Career Center pages requires logging into the EcoLeaders platform, which is free and simple to set up at www.nwfecoleaders.org):

These resources complement the original 10 Career Sector Outlooks:

“In researching career trends and outlooks for the NWF EcoLeader’s Career Center, I’ve realized the extent of careers related to environmental and social enhancement. With myriad pathways to fulfill an “eco-mission”, it is refreshing to see the variety of industries working to create a healthier planet for all. My horizon and perspective of green careers has definitely expanded. In addition, the amount of programs (academic and nonacademic) allocated to careers in environmental sectors brings a sense of hope for the future,” said Christina Lopez.

Christina is currently a first year PhD student at Texas State University in the Department of Geography. She holds a Master of Science degree in Geography from Texas State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Geography from Sam Houston State University. Her PhD research is primarily focused on human-environment interactions – in particular, how intentional communities (or “eco-villages”) provide frameworks for environmentally responsible design.

For the EcoLeaders Career Center, Christina is now focusing on replicating the career sector resrouces on smaller, regional levels – starting with Chicago and the Washington DC metro area. Christina notes,

“One of the most interesting and enjoyable parts of this research has been looking into city’s sustainability plans and progress reports on those plans. It’s great to know that these documents are not inactive and purely created to satisfy a requirement – rather, they are living documents that continuously demonstrate progress towards a city’s goals.”

Learn more about starting an EcoLeaders Career and the National Wildlife Federation’s EcoLeaders Initiative

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