Strategic Professional Development

The Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SDCC) program emphasizes the need to build trust and foster the commitment of participants in effectively addressing environmental problems. To that end, the SDCC program teaches students how to help create a shared vision that reflects the diverse views of a community by integrating and communicating technical, scientific, social and economic information as well as local or indigenous knowledge.

From the moment students enter the SDCC program, we prepare them for entry into the environmental profession. This comprehensive approach to preparing students for employment has proved very successful.

RMC students Also contributing to the program's success has been the use of individual advising, which helps students develop a vision of their prospective career paths. Once a clear path has been envisioned, students are asked to think strategically about courses, course projects, practica and their capstone project, so that the choices they make will build upon one another and the students will develop a portfolio of work and experience that will ease their move into a career after they leave the program.

As students begin to envision their career paths, their advisers emphasize their choice of practicum and the capstone project, since both not only provide experience but can also be of strategic use in networking and expanding the students' access to job opportunities.