Do you want to work with the environment? The people in this
section are all working on different environmental issues
- these activitsts, artists, teachers, lawyers, and many others
are all a part of the environmental movement and are examples
of the incredible things that can happen when you take action!
If you're interested in their careers, read more about their
jobs, their advice for you, and check out the links to the
schools they went to.
Jen Grant
Environmental Education
Job: Education Program Coordinator
for the Sierra Club of Canada - Atlantic Canada Chapter.
For more info about this job, please email Lacia Kinnear, the current Education Program Coordinator.
Job Description: Jen develops, administers
and fundraises to deliver hands-on, interactive environmental
education programs to the four Atlantic Provinces. She visits
schools to teach youth, attends conferences and meetings about
environmental education, talks to teachers, works with volunteers,
and helps out with different things happening at the Sierra
Club like rallies and press conferences. She helped to form
a new local Sierra Club group in the town she lives in, and
is tackling local issues like getting a pesticide bylaw for
her town, and educating the community about issues like not
idling your car.
Other Work Experiences: Jen has owned her
own business, and has worked as camp councilor, outdoor educator,
a lifeguard, a park interpreter, and an environmental educator
for the Sierra Club in B.C.
Education: Lakehead University in Thunder
Bay, Ontario. She completed an Honours Bachelor of Arts in
Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism and a Bachelor of Science
in Natural Science. She did both at the same time and her
degrees took a total of 4 years. To learn about her programs,
check out Lakehead
University.
Advice: Her best advice would be: don't wait
around for a great position to come up, take initiative. Because
of so many cutbacks with environmental education there are
less and less opportunities for these types of jobs. Most
people doing work like her have started it on their own initiative.
Try approaching an organization that interests you: volunteer
to expand a program or start up a new one.
Bram Rogachevsky
Environmental Lawyer
Current Job: Aboriginal lawyer at a law firm
in Vancouver.
Job Description: Bram's job includes practicing
law, supporting other lawyers and researching issues like
aboriginal and treaty rights, water rights, forestry and the
protection of culturally and archaeologically important areas.
He helps people who need a lawyer to understand aboriginal
issues, especially around reserves, and forestry and resource
problems. He's worked with First Nations groups in treaty
talks, and he's negotiated with governments and industry on
many issues.
Education: Bram has a Bachelor of Law from
the University of Victoria in Victoria, BC, and a Bachelor
of Arts from York University in York, Ontario. Click on these
links to check out the Law
Program and the Environmental
Law Centre at the University of Victoria.
Work Experience: Bram worked at the Sierra
Legal Defence Fund in Vancouver, and he's a member of the
Law Society of B.C. and the Canadian Bar Association.
Chad Park
Sustainability Advisor
Current Job: Sustainability advisor at an
organization called The Natural Step, www.naturalstep.org
Job Description: Chad works with organizations
and communities to help them to become more sustainable. He
uses tools to help them map their environmental, social and
economic impacts and helps them to figure out solutions to
deal with the problems at the source. His job permits him
to visit communities across Canada. He recently worked with
sustainability initiatives in Halifax and Canmore.
Education: Chad is originally from Spruce
Grove Alberta and completed a Bachelor's degree at the University
of Alberta in commerce, where he first became interested in
the subject of corporate social responsibility. He then completed
a Masters in Science in Environmental Management and Policy
at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental
Economics at Lund University in Sweden.
Work Experience: Chad volunteered with AIESEC,
which promotes international youth development, and then served
as the national president of the organization. He participated
as an envoy in Morocco, Ghana, Switzerland, Mexico, Slovenia,
Poland, Ecuador, Uganda and Kenya. His last job was with Mountain
Equipment Co-op on a project that studied how to balance social
and environmental issues with business strategies.
Rick Findlay
Sustainable Water Use
Current Job: Director of the Water Programme
and the Ottawa office of Pollution Probe.
Job Description: Rick creates different
plans to help make sure that safe drinking water is available
to people around the Great Lakes area. He brings together
community, conservation groups, businesses and government
to watch the different ways that pollutants get into water
and to come up with ways to get safer drinking sources. He's
worked with countries like Mexico, Jamaica and Chile to help
them monitor their drinking water, and has helped people in
Ontario to bring their communities together to keep an eye
on their own water pollution.
Other Work Experiences: Rick started out as an engineer working
on water and wastewater treatments, and he helped organize
and plan a major Niagara River clean-up. He was head of a
Climate Change team at Environment Canada, and he was also
part of the team that started the original worldwide program
for blue box recycling!
Education: Bachelors of Applied Science (in Chemical Engineering)
from Queen's University at Kingston, Ontario. Click
here to check out his program at Queen's University.
Lucie
Lavoie
Naturalisation
Project Coordinator
Current Job: Coordinator of the Greenspaces
program at EcoSuperior.
Job Description: Lucie coordinates community
gardening projects to reclaim green spaces in areas where
there are no indigenous species left. This process is called
'naturalisation'. She manages many projects for schools and
the municipal government of Thunder Bay. As well, she is involve
in local campaigns to promote local organic gardening to reduce
pesticide usage. At the moment, she is coordinating a programme
to monitor water quality using aquatic decomposers.
Education: Lucie completed her bachelor's
degree at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, in northern
Ontario. More importantly, she is an avid gardener. To learn
more about her programme, check out Lakehead
University.
Advice: Keep a positive outlook. When you
are passionate about an issue, you will always get better
results. She also adds that employers are interested to see
your personal hobbies.
|
