Ivy League Students Attend Environmental Career Fair

Hundreds of students attended 2^nd annual event

The Earth Institute at Columbia University--On Friday, February 17, almost 450 students from all eight Ivy League schools took advantage of the opportunity to meet with over 75 organizations dedicated to addressing environmental challenges at the second annual All-Ivy Environmental Career Fair held at Columbia University.  The career fair was an overwhelming success both for the students as well as the recruiters, Kevin Rosseel, an International Climate Change Specialist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said "The Fair offered me as a recruiter an outstanding opportunity to interact with a large number of highly qualified candidates.  I seldom if ever have such an opportunity to discuss career options with so many bright and engaged students." 

From the impacts of climate change to the degradation of our natural resources, devising sustainable solutions demands highly trained individuals primed for tackling complex environment-related challenges. Ivy League schools are playing a critical role by training students to stand among the best and the brightest in a range of related fields and by creating recruitment opportunities with some of the world's best-known and leading organizations in environmental problem-solving.  

Over 600 undergraduate and graduate students registered for the fair, a 50% increase from last year.  Those students whom attended the fair are studying civil, biological, environmental, mechanical, chemical, and agricultural engineering; forest science and management; city, regional and environmental planning and design; international development; and earth and atmospheric sciences.  

"The Career Fair provides employers with an opportunity to meet with some of the most talented environmental policy and science students in the world," said Steve Cohen, Director, Office of Educational Programs, The Earth Institute at Columbia University. "An event like this can make an often complicated job search a little simpler for students. For employers, it provides an efficient way of interacting with hundreds of prospective employees in a very short period of time." 

Attending the fair were representatives of local, national and international interests, including public agencies, environmental engineering firms, nonprofit organizations as well as business and industry. They include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Peace Corps, and departments of the City of New York along with many consulting firms that are regarded as the best in their field.  Representatives of some of the nation's top graduate programs in Law, the Environment and Forestry Sciences also attended.

In addition to the Career Fair, Kevin Doyle, Director, National Program Development, The Environmental Careers Organization spoke to students about how to focus their job search and how they can develop their passions for the environment into their career.  Student evaluations reflected that the sustainability career lecture was insightful, in that it helped students focus their strengths to search for career opportunities and provided intriguing information. 

The students from Dartmouth College arrived in The Big Green Bus, which was parked on Campus Walk. The Big Green Bus is a school bus that has been converted to run on waste vegetable oil instead of fossil-fuel based diesel fuels. Their purpose is to travel the country to educate people about non-fossil-fuel based sources of energy can be used today.  

The Earth Institute at Columbia University is the world's leading academic center for the integrated study of Earth, its environment and society. The Earth Institute builds upon excellence in the core disciplines-earth sciences, biological sciences, engineering sciences, social sciences and health sciences-and stresses cross-disciplinary approaches to complex problems. Through research, training and global partnerships, the Earth Institute mobilizes science and technology to advance sustainable development, while placing special emphasis on the needs of the world's poor. For more information, visit www.earth.columbia.edu.