One of Chatham University’s missions is sustainability, but the same cannot be said for the current government administration.
With an estimated 200,000 public sector jobs being eliminated, recent graduates of the Falk School of Sustainability and Environment are doing their best to hold out hope for their future.
Mia DiCianna ‘23 graduated from the Falk School and worked for the water science center at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) before returning to school to complete her master’s degree.
“I think the biggest thing for me right now is just keeping hope,” she said. “[I’m trying to] just push through, remember that the work I’m doing is important and that the work all of my peers are doing is important. And to kind of just push through these hard times when a lot of people don’t understand the work we do.”
At the USGS, DiCianna tested the quantity and quality of western Pennsylvania waterways. Her work at the USGS also included collecting data on flooding happening in Pittsburgh.
“This is very important to combat the global changes,” she said. “We need people there to actually be the ones that are quantifying this change.”
Following the completion of her schooling, DiCianna wants to rejoin the public sector but with the hiring pause across federal jobs, she is unsure what her future holds.
Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs and interim dean of the Falk School of Sustainability Matthew Redinger hopes this uncertainty ends soon.
“These are certainly interesting times, particularly for students who are interested in public service,” Dr. Redinger said.
Dr. Redinger doesn’t want the current cuts and uncertainty to discourage students from doing what they love.
“I tell students and live by this myself, you have to do it, but it feels right for you because, even if you’re holding a chance against the tide, eventually, things will work out as they’re supposed to,” he said.
He believes that even if the opportunities students want aren’t here today, to find a way to stay hopeful.
“It’s easy to get disenchanted with opportunities in the current political environment, but a lot of it depends on how you cast yourself,” he said.
While times are bleak now, Dr. Redinger believes jobs focusing on sustainability will return.
“If you are a died-in-the-wool environmentalist and, you believe, as most scientists do, that climate change is the real thing, then you have to characterize yourself as embracing a very closely related field,” he said. “Regardless of who’s in the White House, regardless of what kind of federal dollars are being sequestered or limited or what have you, the future is in sustainability simply because there’s no other alternative.”
