Environmental fields provide an exciting, dynamic area for international students in the United States to explore. These disciplines have always involved both global and local issues, with a focus on local activism making a difference on a global scale. Environmental concerns and needs vary widely across different areas of the world, and environmental education is a melting pot of global, international, and local issues, enriched by the interaction of different perspectives.

Since environmental concerns began to be an academic focus in their own right more than thirty years ago, environmental education’s reach has grown more and more meaningfully into people’s daily lives everywhere. Today, this means more funds available for research, a broader interest and acceptance by employers, and increasingly varied opportunities for work worldwide. However, the varied options that an environmental education can offer also suggest a need to conscientiously choose the track of your education.

Especially as an international student, you need to prepare yourself as thoroughly as possible for the work you want to do. Taking time to consider your course choices, plan your work experience, and establish professional contacts makes a world of difference both while you’re still in school and after you graduate.

It is completely normal—even expected—to adjust your career plan along the way, but having already formulated one will give you a better sense of direction. Whether you are an undergraduate, earning a graduate degree, or taking part in short-term training, there are steps you can take to make the most out of your experience.

Keep in mind three key realities about the “big picture” of environmental education: first, that it is deeply interdisciplinary; second, that you must supplement your course work with some kind of practical experience; and third, that you should start to set up a professional network while you are still a student.

Step One: Interact with the Interdisciplinary

This study goal is especially applicable to undergraduate students who may have a wider array of course choices in front of them than would graduate or short-term training students. Environmental issues concern interactions among economics, social issues, politics, law, technology, ecology, and more. Acquiring some background in a number of these areas will help you feel more comfortable with the discipline as a whole.

Having said that, no “set” list of courses can be defined as providing ideal preparation for an environmental career. Explore; find out what type of academic background is in demand for the particular careers that interest you; and develop your computer, writing, and verbal communication skills (which will be important in any career). Your course choices should depend on a wide range of variables including—but not limited to—your own interests, the relevance of a particular topic to the area in which you plan to work, what courses your particular university offers, and more.

The environmental education programs at many universities began as groupings of pre-existing courses, combined to address students’ growing interest in the discipline. In other places, certain departments—one example would be geology—may have been central to founding an environmental education program, and the tilt of the courses still reflects that. Talk with your academic adviser, colleagues, and professionals in the field—especially in the location where you plan to work—about which courses offered at your institution will be the most helpful and relevant for you.

Step Two: Gather Practical Experience

Environmental education is an academic discipline that grew out of an activist movement. It picked up speed in the 1980s as grassroots groups became increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of modern-day development, and many educators are themselves activists.

As a result, students don’t simply absorb lectures in a classroom: environmental fields are characterized by active teaching and learning. As the discipline has grown, it has encouraged students to “develop the dynamic qualities of citizenship that enable [them] to accept responsibility for the environment.”

Real-world work experience is therefore central to a well-rounded environmental degree. Students must supplement classroom learning with experiences that give context to the ideas they study.

Apply for an internship or part-time job based on what you would like to do after graduation.  Think of your experience in terms of what skills and jobs are needed in the market. Read academic and trade journals, newspapers, and industry magazines to familiarize yourself with the most pressing issues. Many colleges offer databases of such jobs and internships for environmental education students. Take advantage of the available resources—a lot of the research may already have been done for you!

Step Three: Make and Keep Career Contacts

Probably the best way to solidify your options for international environmental careers is to establish contacts with professionals working in the field. Identify people who you would like to get to know and then cultivate those contacts. Once you arrange to meet or communicate with someone, maintain the contact—this is easier than ever with e-mail. Keep your contacts up-to-date on your progress, ask advice on course or job options, and find some means to reciprocate for their help (send them news items that might be of interest to them, perhaps, or volunteer your services for a project they’re working on) if that’s possible.

It is especially important to establish some professional contacts in the country where you plan to work. Ask these professionals to consider how your American-style degree and related experiences may be viewed locally, and try to tailor your plan to make yourself as marketable as possible.

Contacts around your own age can be a great source of information, too. Some of your most useful and informative sources may be students who have recently graduated with a similar degree, and who are working now where you would like to work. These people have a very realistic, up-to-date perspective on the job market, and can pass along tips they have learned in their own job searches.

Bear in mind that the three steps above can only provide a limited view of how to prepare yourself for your career. So much of what happens once you earn your degree is unpredictable. Your best bet is to work with what you can predict: know the background, know the issues, and get to know the people. By organizing your education around your own personal interests and the realities of the job market, you are setting yourself up for a dynamic, flexible, and very promising career.

Questions to Ask in Choosing an Environmental Study Program

If you are just starting to consider U.S. study programs related to environmental protection areas, some of the following questions may be helpful to consider in selecting the right program for you.

• What different types of study can lead to the type of career in which I am interested? What program options are out there? For many environmental careers, it is possible to pursue either interdisciplinary study or discipline-based study with an environmental focus. Many schools also offer joint programs that meld two often very different areas of disciplinary study (for instance, public policy and engineering) into a program focusing on environmental issues and resulting in two degrees.

• What professional accreditations does this institution hold? Recognized accreditation is one good indicator of program quality. While there is currently no specialized body that reviews and accredits interdisciplinary environmental programs, accrediting bodies recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation currently exist in the following related fields: allied health; business; construction education; engineering, computer science, and engineering technology; forestry; health administration; industrial technology; journalism and mass communication; landscape architecture; medicine; planning; psychology; public affairs and administration; recreation and parks; teacher education; veterinary medicine and veterinary medical technology.

• What about other indicators of program quality? Examine faculty experience and credentials, student-faculty ratio, facilities, and opportunities for practical training and field work. Internships and fieldwork are very important for environmental careers—what is required in the program that you are looking at, and what support can you expect in finding the experiences that are right for your career interests?

• How well do faculty interests and research match my own? What are program graduates doing now? Visit the institutions that you are most interested in if at all possible or at least talk with or e-mail alumni and faculty about how well the program might match your interests and their experiences and perspectives on the program.

• Is financial aid available? Typically grants are more available in the traditional science disciplines than in such fields as environmental management. What opportunities may be available to work as a teaching assistant or research fellow (and the level of funding and types of projects active at a particular university) is also an important piece of information for graduate-level applicants to have.

• How does school location parallel the location where I plan to work? If you know that you are interested in working within a particular type of environmental system, it will be to your advantage to choose a school situated in a similar region, be it urban or rural, arid or tropical.