AGU Annual Conference - New Orleans - Dec. 13 to 17, 2021

PhotoGrid of AGU21 - EGS Presenters and Supporters.jpg

About the Program

The Emerging Geoscience Scholars Program (now the ASU FLAGSHIP - Future Leaders and Geoscience High-road Internship Program) aims to increase our capacity for a resilient and sustainable infrastructure and advance climate justice, by ensuring that the geoscience and the wider infrastructure workforce of the future adopts values and methods that center on and embrace the core values of equity, justice, and inclusiveness - from diversity comes strength. A sustainable future workforce for the geosciences must be composed of, and ultimately led by, people of color, Native Americans, and immigrants. It must start now with this rising generation.

During the Emerging Geoscience Scholars (EGS '21) program twenty-three interns from traditionally underrepresented communities, disconnected youth, veterans, and transitional (unemployed or underemployed) people, and other college age individuals and life-long learners, were engaged to investigate US infrastructure careers and share their findings as emerging professionals at a major geoscience conference, the Fall 2022 Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in New Orleans.

In doing so, the Interns:

● Built their knowledge base of “mission-critical” jobs in environmental infrastructure
● Networked with local and national professionals-including Bay Area employers.
● Gained an understanding of infrastructure career pathways and career-readiness
● Learned about the skills and training needed to qualify for these opportunities.

Program Outcomes

(results are averaged across responses on a 1-5 scale: 1 being "strongly disagree" and 5 being "strongly agree"

Selected post-EGS professional pathways from our 2022 cohort:

Accepted to Texas A&M and received the Blacks at Microsoft Scholarship and featured in a New York Times article on educationSummer '22 Internship at Louisiana Dept of Transportation
Accepted to an NIHS funded paid internship, called "Environmental Health Science Scholars Program"
Accepted a full time position as an environmental scientist with a Baton Rouge geotechnical firm
Completing undergrad work at Univ. of New Orleans; decided to continue for master’s degree.
Hired as full time Summer ’22 Intern at Louisiana Dept of Transportation
Hired as summer planning intern with the City of Santa Barbara
Hired for full-time job with ESRI, the industry leader in Geographical Information Systems'
Hired for full-time job as an environmental scientist with Baton Rouge geotechnical firm
Hired full time as hydrogeologist at Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Interview with Milwaukee De pt. of Water Resources, attending US Water Alliance “One Water Summit”
Presenting master’s degree Geology research at AGU ’22 conference and applying for Ph.D. programs.
Received full Scholarship to Univ. of Vermont, Agriculture and Natural Sciences graduate school
Research Assistant at intersection of climate, environmental justice, and water at Arizona State University
Summer '22 intern at SF State Univ.'s College Corps plus $10K scholarship at a K-12 educational non-profit

When responding to an program-end survey, interns reported that the EGS '22:

Intern Testimonials

"EGS allowed me to gain a better understanding of the opportunities related to infrastructure....I was able to refine my resume and created a LinkedIn account, which has allowed me to expand my network."

"I have gained confidence when it comes to speaking with professionals. I pursued an internship with a construction management company and although I haven’t heard back yet it was a learning experience. I wouldn’t have had the motive and confidence without EGS."

"I wanted to expand my network and I was held accountable to it. It really broadened my horizons."

"This program opened doors and showed me I could talk to people I used to think were out of my leauge. I've been networking and reaching out!"

"Ive become a better person and learned how to work with people professionally. Presenting at the AGU was amazing! I'll remember this for a long time."

"My biggest takeaway is that there are a lot of careers that we don't think about or encourage people to take on for the jobs that really mean the most"