Environmental Career Chats are informal networking opportunities for U-M students to connect with environmental professionals about their career journeys. During these hour-long sessions, PitE alumni share about their experiences working in various environmental fields and answer questions submitted by students.
If you would like to receive the recordings from these past Environmental Career Chats, please contact Lisa at yeeha@umich.edu.
February
Environmental Career Chat with Yoav Jacob (Sustainable Food & Public Health)
Monday, Feb. 21, 4 - 5 pm
Yoav is a recent grad from the class of 2020 with a degree in EEB and a minor in PitE. During undergrad, he had two internships at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, was a regular at the Campus Farm, peer mentored for the Sustainable Living Experience, conducted research for his thesis, worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant for Bio171, 173, and 192 and was an EMT off-campus. Since graduating, he has taken time off from formal academics and pursued a food passion by attending the Institute of Culinary Education in their Health-Supportive Culinary Arts program. It consisted of 8-months of formal culinary training, nutrition lectures, food system discussions, seminars with industry leaders, and a 2-month externship in the Los Angeles food scene. While out in LA he interned and worked for a few food and health nonprofits addressing issues on food access, education, and literacy. Since graduating, he has also been taking time to prepare his application for medical school and hopes to present a narrative connecting the food and health systems in his unfolding career.
March
Environmental Career Chat with Catherine Tao (Environmental Education)
Thursday, March 24, 7 - 8 pm
Upon graduating with a degree from PitE and Earth & Environmental Science in 2015, Catherine moved out to a small dusty town called Bishop, CA, for a job as an AmeriCorp Education and Outreach Coordinator for a non-profit. However, if she were being honest with herself at that time, she would have admitted that she really chose the job for Bishop's outdoor recreation opportunities. Nestled in the rugged peaks of the Eastern Sierra, she bounced between jobs with CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife and other technician positions that supplemented her pursuit of semi-professional alpine climbing. After several domestic and international climbing expeditions from Washington, to Mexico, to Tibet, she moved to Oakland, CA, where she is now a high school science teacher, teaching a senior capstone class about environmental activism and community change as she works towards her Master's in Education at California State University, East Bay.
April
Environmental Career Chat with Kate Vogel (Environmental Policy and Advocacy)
Wednesday, April 13, 4 - 5 pm
Kate is working as a Coastal Resilience Planner for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, working to advance community capacity to understand, plan for and advance preparedness related to flood hazards including nuisance flooding and sea level change. She promotes resiliency planning at a community and regional scale and delivers technical assistance for coastal management projects. Kate received her B.A. from PitE, and her first job upon graduating was working in the Dominican Republic. After graduating with her Master's degree from SEAS, Kate worked as a NOAA Coastal Management Fellow writing climate change adaptation and resilience plans for state lands with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. She is excited for the opportunity to keep working with a great team, and outside of work she enjoys eating crepes by Annapolis' waterfront, and helping others find their passions!
