Environmental Studies Jobs in Education and Academics: : Possible Employers
A range of potential employers is described in this section. Whether you are interested in working in a traditional educational setting (middle or high school, higher education), a nonprofit organization (national, regional, local), for a government agency (federal, state, local), or camps, information is pro vided that will help you in your job search. Read those sections that interest you and follow up on the information provided.
Middle and High Schools
There are some different settings to consider at the middle and high school levels. Public schools, private schools, and Department of Defense schools are three of the primary options.
Help in Locating These Employers. Public middle and high school jobs are usually well advertised, so be sure to check classified ads appearing in newspapers that serve the geographic area where you hope to work. If you are thinking about relocating, many of these classifieds can be found online. If there are specific schools where you’d like to work, contact them directly. In addition, specialized services, such as the American Association for Employment in Education’s Project Connect (aaee.org), offer job listings. A user name and password are required for access to this website and can be obtained through your college’s career office. Other websites, including kl2jobs .com or altavista.com, also list teacher job openings.
Private school positions are not as easy to find. Work with personnel at your college career office to find out more about the job fairs that are held and to obtain sources that list the schools and their contact information.
Department of Defense schools educate the children of military and civilian personnel who are in service both stateside and abroad. You can find out more about job opportunities and how to apply for them by visiting dodea.edu/home.
Higher Education
Institutions of higher education include community colleges, technical colleges, and public and private colleges and universities. Some community colleges in metropolitan areas can be as large as many private schools. Programs or departments looking for environmental educators might include natural resources, comparative ecology, oceanography, marine biology, environmental science and policy, and environmental studies, just to name a few.
Help in Locating These Employers. Many jobs available in higher education are advertised in The Chronicle of Higher Education (chronicle.com). Paper copies of this publication are widely available in college departmental offices and in the library. Nonsubscribers can view older job listings via their website. Individual college and university Web pages usually contain a link to current job listings. And environmentally related websites, such as Environmental Career Opportunities in Higher Education (ecojobs.com), will often include job advertisements for higher education.
Federal, State, and Local Governments
Park rangers and naturalists, docents, and field interpreters work as environ mental educators for local, state, and national parks. The National Park Ser vice, for example, employs environmental educators as interpreters at its various exhibits at national battlefield sites, national parks, and national monuments. Aside from leading interpretive walks and tours, educators also make presentations, help to create indoor and outdoor displays, and develop educational and supportive materials.
Help In Locating These Employers. Your best bet for locating federal jobs is the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s website (usajobs.opm.gov), or heck the websites of the various federal departments that are of interest to you. Nonprofitcareers.com also lists government jobs. State jobs are listed at state employment offices, in regional newspapers, and on websites. A later section shows the Internet addresses for personnel offices for each state. Local government jobs are often listed in local newspapers. Don’t hesitate to place a call to the personnel department to find out how they advertise their job openings.
National Nonprofit Organizations
Several very large national organizations are dedicated to the protection of the environment. Included in this group are the National Wildlife Federation (nwf.org), National Audubon Society (audubon.org), the Sierra Club (sierraclub.org), Student Conservation Association (thesca.org), Greenpeace (greenpeace.org/canada; greenpeace.org/usa), and the World Wildlife Fund (worldwildlife.org). Visit their websites to learn more about recent environ mental successes and issues.
Many of these groups have developed strong programs for the schools. Resource packets of education materials, with lesson plans, visuals and graphics, worksheets, ideas for projects such as the installation of a pond on school property, and plans to make equipment to use in gathering and displaying specimens are presented. These activity programs are developed by environ mental educators who work in settings other than the traditional classroom.
Help in Locating These Employers. Be sure to check the websites of each of the organizations listed above for national job listings and also for links to regional and local chapters that will have their own job listings posted. Also check the Nonprofit Career Center’s site (nonprofitcareer.com) and the Community Career Center’s site (nonprofitjobs.org).
Regional or Local Nonprofit Organizations
Alaska Center for the Environment, the Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the Florida Oceanographic Society, and many other similar organizations employ staff naturalists whose charge is to create interpretive programs, analyze the value of land tracts proposed as donations to the trust, and perform the more mundane tasks of plant and animal identifications. Staffers also serve as program leaders and nature interpreters. Creativity and perseverance will be the key to finding regional and local non traditional environmental education jobs.
Help In Locating These Employers. Nonprofit organizations such as Action Without Borders (idealist.org) seek to find solutions to environmental problems, and they use the Web to advertise jobs for member organizations. A good “umbrella” website that you might want to visit is the Environmental Jobs and Careers page (ejobs.org). It has links to job listings and a lot of other valuable information for the job seeker. Another umbrella organization is GuideStar (guidestar.org). Their website can link you to hundreds of thou sands of nonprofit organizations. Entering the keywords environmental education will bring up almost 13,000 organizations. You can then link to these organizations and any jobs they have posted.
Camps
Camps are no longer just for children or operated just in the summer. A wide range of camps are in operation all year long and they serve every age group.
Many are focused on helping people learn about the environment.
Help in Locating These Employers. The American Camp Association website (acacamps.org) contains valuable information about careers in camping, including job descriptions, qualifications, professional development core areas, career potential, and how to prepare for a career in camping. Many camp jobs are posted at various Internet sites and can be accessed by searching with the keywords environmental education camp jobs. For example, aeoe.org lists camp jobs for boys’ camps, girls’ camps, coed camps, Canadian camps, and expedition programs. And be sure to review the websites associated with the organizations listed at the end of the section.