that's one of the first graduate

programs and environmental management in

the United States the students are

coming from kind of a wide range of

backgrounds and that really enriches the

class experience because they can they

can bring different stories different

perspectives to bear on the topic that

we're covering in class I like the fact

that that you get to choose your own

classes and your own concentration I

like learning a little bit of everything

so I like timing mitigation I like

toxicology

but I also like engineering students who

come in who want to get more of a policy

focus can do that students who want more

of a biology ecology focus can do that

but it's also nice for students who

aren't quite sure what they want to do

because they can take a variety of

courses and see what interests them most

I have about  years of experience in

the industry and I find every class has

some kind of link to oh yeah I'm

handling a situation like that that is

directly linked to my economics problem

set so it's really fun and exciting when

it's applied like that to the real world

so my favorite thing about the program

at USF has been the accessibility of

professors in the class size they're

small enough so you get to network with

everybody you get to talk at a more

personal level the faculty are great

they are very accessible by email by

phone they really would try to work with

your schedule

we get to see students for a long time

each each day we meet so there's

opportunity to build a relationship

there in the program I've definitely met

some great advisors and professors that

have connections in the field and I've

been approached by a couple for job

opportunities there's a mix of our

full-time faculty with a more academic

approach

they're really working professionals who

teach in the program who are come from a

wide range of agencies and consulting

firms and bring really hands-on current

day-to-day experience we have a senior

manager in the San Francisco Public

Utilities Commission who teaches a

course on water policy we have a section

chief from EPA region  who teaches

courses on emergency management the MSC

M program is geared to working

professionals and if it wasn't I

wouldn't be able to to go to grad school

a majority of the courses that I took

while in the master's program allowed us

to go on different field trips

restoration ecology and wetland ecology

both were really eye-opening because you

can learn about it within you can also

see your applied knowledge at work when

you visit these wetland sites I have a

passion for water

I feel like this program is using the

tools that I need to face the problems

that we're going to see in the sector in

the future for example I'm learning

about climate change and how it doesn't

affect the water sector my what I plan

for my master project is to look at what

integrated water management a scarcity

and drought with increase in California

I want to make sure that we have

appropriate supplies in the future for

future generations the colleagues that

I've interacted with are amazing not

only are we like-minded but we just have

a lot of fun together I have the

day-to-day experience it's really fun at

my job but the intellectual is a little

missing I thought it would be the best

program to help me choose what I want to

do in the future