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Campus leaders at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are helping connect students to professionals in sustainability-focused jobs and fields through networking events and a formal mentoring program.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Today’s college students are increasingly impacted by the negative consequences of climate change, which can generate climate anxiety. Some colleges and universities have increased opportunities for students to learn about climate solutions, encouraging them to get involved in creating a better planet.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute launched a career development opportunity for students who are passionate about this work. The Sustainable Career Mentorship Program pairs students with a professional working in green or sustainable jobs and industries to provide insight into their work and assist the student in carving their own path in the developing field.
What’s the need: The market for environmental and sustainability-focused jobs has grown, according to an analysis by LinkedIn. The demand for green talent, which LinkedIn defines as a person who shows skills that directly combat the effects of climate change or who works in a sustainability-focused job, grew by 11.6 percent from 2023 to 2024, while supply grew by 5.6 percent. Around 7.7 percent of the jobs listed on LinkedIn were a green job or required green skills.
Job seekers who hold green skills or titles are also more likely to be hired, with green-skilled U.S. applicants having an 80 percent higher hiring rate, compared to those without.
At WPI, faculty members learned students who are pursuing environmental studies felt confused or anxious about finding a job with a sustainability focus, says Lisa Stoddard, associate professor in environmental and sustainability studies at the Global School.
“WPI has had substantial resources for connecting students with more kind of conventional, single discipline–type employers like engineering firms, but they’ve had fewer resources dedicated to connecting students with smaller, maybe public or less conventional employers and more interdisciplinary careers,” says Laureen Elgert, professor and head of the Department of Integrative and Global Studies.
Many environmental studies students at WPI also major or minor in other programs, creating a more interdisciplinary focus in their degree that can reduce their interactions with their peers in a structured cohort model, Stoddard says.
In response, Stoddard and Elgert created special programming for green learners, including networking events to connect students and employers and most recently, the Sustainable Career Mentorship Program.
How it works: The inaugural cohort includes 24 mentors and 16 mentees. The mentors involved in the program hold a variety of titles in various roles, including energy, ecology and corporate sustainability areas.
Any student who is interested in addressing climate change or working in environmental sustainability is eligible to join. This first year, students’ majors included engineering, the sciences, business, humanities and the arts, environmental and sustainability studies, social science, and policy studies.
The pairs were matched based on their similar areas of passion or interest, though students could also select from the database of mentors if there was someone they were particularly interested in connecting with.
Creating a mentor network was a grassroots effort, Stoddard says, built mostly from her own network and those of her colleagues or alumni currently working in sustainability roles. If there was a student who had an interest that wasn’t represented in the available mentors, Stoddard would reach out to other professionals to find a good fit.
To help develop fruitful relationships, mentors and mentees were asked to set independent goals for their time together. The duos commit to meeting at least twice a semester, with a culminating recognition lunch for the whole group in the spring term.
The impact: Organizers are collecting data from participants to help determine what works and where they can better support both parties.
At the midpoint, they’ve mostly received positive feedback, Stoddard says. One mentorship pair plans to attend a conference together in February, where the mentor will introduce the mentee to potential employers.
DIY: For other institutions looking to model this work, the faculty suggest:
- Building a passionate team. Gathering faculty, staff, alumni and students who are enthusiastic about the program can help build momentum and make it happen, Stoddard says.
- Having some flexibility. Creating a program that is standardized to ensure quality experiences, but also not onerous for the participants, is key. “You need to strike a balance between having this as an institutional artifact versus having it as something that people can use the way they want to,” Elgert says.
- Not waiting for resources. The mentorship program lacks a budget but is able to influence students now with limited resources to later demonstrate to administrators why they need support. “It really doesn’t take that much money, but it does take time,” Stoddard says.
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