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HOST INTRO: Students who lean towards green in their choice of careers came out in record numbers to Columbia University today. The University hosted the annual All Ivy Environmental Career Fair. It brought together 500 students and recruiters from nearly 80 organizations. Megan Hauser checked out what's in store for young professionals who want to save the planet.
Nat sound conf.
N1: The fair transformed Lerner Hall on Columbia University's campus into a hall of opportunity today. Staff at the school's Earth Institute organized an event that gave curious students from around the country an inside look at the environmental job market. Louise Rosen is the Director of Student Programming at the Earth Institute and the one who put the event together. She says the market for environmental jobs is booming.
A1 (Rosen): It's a huge field, academically it's growing, - environmental science is the fastest growing major across the country…and people are realizing that you can't exclude the environment. More & more it's being viewed as something that's integral to everything.
N2: She sees more and more environmental jobs in the private sector, as companies find they need to fall in line with new regulations and safe practices.
A2 (Rosen): Environment has been taken into account much more so than in previous years. Companies that seemingly had little or nothing whatsoever to do with the environment now realize they do. So there is a great need across the board for people who are able to understand the science.
N3: One-third of the recruiters represented at the event today were from private companies and consulting firms. Sometimes, those consulting firms face an uphill battle trying to recruit green-minded students. Katie Lundquist represents ENVIRON - one of these consulting firms.
A3 (LUNDQUIST): You come in and say you're a private consulting firm working for corporations, that's sort of a dirty word around here, sometimes you don't want to put that out there, but it's important and good work. This is where you idealism gets really put into practice and you see what's going on.
A4: Adia Bey, a senior at Columbia, says this break from traditional eco-jobs like planting trees and counting fish presents an opportunity, not an ethical dilema.
A4 (BEY): I guess some might think of it as selling out, others might see it as a creative way to approach a problem in a profitable, appealing way that will be appealing to a wider variety people instead of just the tree-huggers.
A5: Kevin Doyle is the Director of ECO - the Environmental Career Organization. He says that may be because companies have taken the environmental message to heart.
A5: (DOYLE): What we are now trying to do is build an economy that in its normal course of work produces an environmental good, so that you need a special cadre of environmental people to come after the fact and clean up mess economy made.
A6: The Earth Institute will hold other events for students throughout the spring
Megan Hauser, Columbia Radio News