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Hmm, I was a biology major first, I thought I wanted to do genetics. HAH! After 2 years of lots of labs, chemistry, etc., I swtiched to Ecology, which is the study of the relationships of organisms to their environment. I liked the broad scale, as opposed to microscopic. In my third year, took an environmental course as an elective, it was called "Earth Care", and I was hooked! I thought..."This is what I want to do". I actually cared about what I was learning about---which was that we as humans have wrecked our planet! It was a very basic, generic course. So I took more classes and consulted with a professor there, and started looking into grad schools. The U of I-Springfield had a Policy and Administration specialty that I thought would be a good complement to my science background. So for my Master's I learned a lot of law, and toxicology (very interesting). While I was there I dreamed about working for EPA, everyone knew it was near impossible to get a job there (hard to get govt work PERIOD), so I figured I'd do some kind of consulting.
In my last year there, I read about this internship online for the Environmental Careers Organization. It was at the EPA in Chicago, 6 months long, $15 an hour (good pay back then for me!) so I applied on a whim. Not too long after I got a call saying someone wanted to interview me, and he interviewed me on the phone. it was HARD. He actually asked me about different laws (thank god my notes were handy!), and what I'd do in certain situations.
I got that internship, it lasted 6 months + and extra 3. It was a very menial internship, I couldn't do any "real" work, so I was just helping this guy, doing organizational, almost clerical work. When that ended, the internship people placed me in another division, this time doing GIS work--Geographic Information Systems. Mapping software used to design strategies to pinpoint polluted areas and clean them up. Had I any experience?? Heck no! But I can be very convincing....and it was interesting, and I was pretty computer literate.
SO, they really took me under their wing (a bunch of 40 year old men who acted like teenagers) and I learned a LOT. I stayed with them for 2.5 years as an intern. Then I was engaged, and realized I really wanted benefits and more pay, and couldn't be an intern forever. But there were NO permanent openings. Out of the blue, I heard about a career fair in our building, printed off a resume, ran down in my JEANS, had a few on the spot interviews, got two call backs. One was in the Water Division, sounded kind of boring, the other was the job I have now: making sure companies who have toxic chemicals inform the communities around them, and in the event of an accidental release, report it immediately to federal, state, and local agencies. If they don't do this--we file an enforcement action. I REALLY wanted this job, because to me it was my "dream" EPA job---protecting our community and environment from toxic chemicals, and really sticking it to bad companies!!
Thankfully, I badgered my boss enough and he gave me this job and I've been here nearly 2 years, and I love it. I work closely with attorneys on all my cases, and have enforcement meetings all the time, watching these idiots from the company's trying to worm their way out of things and not letting them. I feel like I'm actually doing something good. I've never been a "tree hugger", and don't have a high opinion of people who resort to fanatical and extreme activities to bring attention to environmental issues, but in this job I feel like I'm doing my part to help.
Geez this was long!! Sorry!
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