The Service is committed to creating an inclusive workforce which reflects the full diversity of the American people. This is being achieved by moving forward to fully engage all segments of American youth in environmental stewardship and those considering careers as public servants, either working for us or other federal environmental agencies.
As a biologist in the Division of Education Outreach at the National Conservation Training Center, I help plan events which focus on college youth career education and development. In collaboration with the Office of Diversity and Inclusive Workforce Management, I recently had the opportunity to help coordinate a natural resource careers symposium for over 50 diverse students. These rising scholars varied not only in ethnicity but represented youth from all across the country, including those from prominent universities, liberal arts colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions and more.
College students, attending the NCTC Natural Resource Careers Symposium, observing rainbow trout at the National Center for Cool and Coldwater Aquaculture, USDA in Leetown, WV. (Photo: Blaine Eckberg, USFWS)
What I found most impressive about this group of young men and women was their genuine concern about the health of the environment and the destruction of nature. They were concerned about water pollution, the safety of consuming genetically modified salmon, the ecological threats of a changing climate and emerging infectious diseases endangering wildlife.
However, later in the evening, when they donned rubber boots and walked around the NCTC campus ponds identifying breeding amphibians, another important truth was revealed; many of the students had never had the experience of simply holding a living frog in their hands. Perhaps this should not have taken me aback, but it did. The great majority of this entire generation or more of Americans have grown up in cities which has given them a decidedly urban (and indoor) orientation to life and their connection with nature.
Thus the importance of inclusivity became clear and the challenge was fully cast before me. While paying attention to the considerable strengths and talents of our diverse youth, we must engage them in experiences that will inspire them to save the remaining wildness and that will encourage them to commit themselves to the support of environmental conservation, either as citizen activists or as career professionals.
Jim Siegel is with the Division of Education and Outreach at the National Conservation Training Center.
