Environmental Careers for Young People

by FamilyEducation Staff

As long as the ozone layer continues to shrink, and our reliance on the earth's resources continues to grow, there will be a need for environmental experts. Many colleges offer courses and degrees in environmental studies as preparation for future careers.

While many kids are curious about environmental studies, they may not know the wide variety of careers available. How can your teen investigate careers in the environment? One of the best ways is through internships. Your high school guidance department can be a good resource for getting ideas or finding an existing internship. But your teen may be more interested in creating his or her own work/study program.

Teens can consider the following questions as they develop a service to offer a community or business:

• What do I really want to do?
• Do I require pay? How much?
• What skills do I enjoy using? What do I want to learn and develop?
• Where do I want to work? What kinds of people do I want to work with?

The more specific the career goal or experience desired, the better. If the experience causes your child to choose environmental studies, the internship will also be of value on the resume when he or she goes in search of a job in the field. Just a smattering of possible career choices are listed below.

• The environmental sciences encompass students of geography, biology, and chemistry.
• Environmental engineering graduates go into air pollution control, hazardous waste management, radiation protection, and water supply engineering.
• Environmental health programs produce public health nurses, municipal water personnel, and sanitation experts.
• General environmental career activities include analyzing air, soil, or water quality; studying ecosystems; treating the environment to make it safe; or managing natural resources, such as forests, wildlife, fisheries, and energy.