Alumni

Informational Interviewing Assignment

Interview one Middlebury geography alumni or non-geography alumni who have gone into geographic fields. Although they do not necessarily need to be working on climate change adaptation, please touch on themes, theories, or geographic approaches related to the course with at least one of your interview questions. Follow the guidelines and advice of CCI guru Tracy Isham as you contact, interview, and send thank-you follow-ups to the alumni. Feel free to say that this is a class requirement if that helps break the ice or make you feel more comfortable.

As you identify potential interviewees, please list the contacts that you make below so that we do not duplicate outreach to the same person. Add the most recent contacts at the top. If you are having trouble finding anyone, I may be able to help by reaching out to alumni in my own network.

Either take notes during the interview or request permission to record the interview for note-taking purposes. If you are using AI, ask permission of the interviewee.

Finally, culminate this assignment by making a short video (5 minutes or less) summarizing what you learned. Use Panopto for this and store it here: https://midd.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Sessions/List.aspx?folderID=7553ba0a-a94f-4372-8c68-b35c001c6dd3 and completed by November 5. 

Climate Action Conference

https://www.middlebury.edu/franklin-environmental-center/environmental-events/what-works-now 

Careers & Geography Discussion

1. Career Paths: green (private sector), purple (academic / education), pink (public service: government or not-for-profit organization)

2. What are employers looking for?  Add items to google doc above. Look up at least two climate jobs: https://community.iisd.org/ of interest.

3. What do employers ask in interviews? Are there exams, tests, portfolios?

4. What is geography?

5. What unique contributions can (liberal arts) geographers make, following Lawson (2007), Winkler (2016), and Taylor and O'Keefe (2021)?

6. Job outlook in context of climate change and A.I.
   https://bridgestoprosperity.org/
   https://map.fikamap.com/#8.2/-2.981/30.666 

7. What questions do you all have about career futures?