Alumni Engage via Zoom with Env Capstone Course

Those students enrolled in the ENV-450 course along with other environmental studies seniors met our alumni in four Zoom break-out rooms to hear about graduate school opportunities, career paths and our alumni’s experiences.

Leah Joseph, associate professor of environmental studies, welcomed to the session the following Ursinus alumni:

• Mariana Bergerson ’02 is a deputy refuge manager for the US Fish and Wildlife Service at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Tinicum. She has a M.S. (’05) in Biology from Saint Joseph’s University.
• Catherine Buczek ’18 is a teaching assistant at Florida State University while completing her M.S. in Meteorology at Florida State University (Dec 2020).
  Allie Cook ’18 is a Maine SNAP-Ed nutrition educator at Healthy Acadia in Washington County, Maine.
• Laura Cruz ’08 is a garden manager at Stoneleigh Natural Lands Trust. She has her M.A. (’13) in Landscape Architecture from the University of Sheffield.
• Sarah Huang ’14 is a program manager at the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. She is completing her PhD in Anthropology and Ecological Sciences and Engineering at Purdue University (Dec 2020).
• Ian Schillinger-Brokaw ’17 is a parks resiliency coordinator for Denver Parks and Recreation in Colorado. He is applying to Colorado State University for a Masters of Natural Resource Stewardship.
• Brian Lyons ’12 is a manager of transports for a local, independent chain of running stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is applying to California State University, East Bay, to pursue a Masters of Social Work.
• Amanda (Schwartz) Katzoff ’10 is a Health & Safety Leader with Kimberly-Clark of PA in Chester, PA. She has her M.S. (’14) in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Biology from the University of Pennsylvania.

In round-robin fashion, Leah directed the students to the various break-out rooms which hosted a pair of alumni who spoke about their career paths through various positions in government, non-profit, land trust, climate, food security and justice, nutrition, horticulture, education, and AmeriCorps work. A few alumni spoke about their various graduate school projects and early positions which took them to various parts of the US and abroad.

Environmental studies majors asked our alumni for practical advice about job and internship application processes with regards to finding full-time positions after Ursinus. Our alumni provided an abundance of information and advice to our students as well as directing them to resources available at Ursinus. As one student in the session proclaimed, “We always like to talk with our alumni.” And our alumni are always eager to answer the call and give back to Ursinus.