Professional Science Master’s in Environmental Science -Virtual Information Session

That's good.

I'll get you back to that one.

That's pretty much it. And then um.

We've got three people who are registered for the event.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Even if no one shows, we're gonna ohh we're still here. Thanks everybody. We do have some folks welcome welcome.

We're going to go ahead and get started then. Very exciting. Um, I'd like to welcome you. My name is Jen Radwanski. I am the associate director for graduate admissions here at Stockton University.

And I am joined by amazing, my amazing colleague here, Doctor Tate Karenjy, who is the program chair for our professional Science Masters in environmental science. And he is here to share with us his words of wisdom about the program, why you should consider this for your Masters degree, and just all the amazing aspects that there are to to being at this in this program. So without further ado, Doctor Trendy, I'm going to turn things over to you.

OK. Thanks, Jen. I'm happy to be here. Actually, this is my first time doing this presentation, so I'm excited to do this.

So as Jen said, my name is Tate and I'm an environmental science. I ran both the masters.

Our program and the accelerated bachelors and Masters program in environmental science and this is a really unique program. I know a lot of people ask when they see the professional edit to a Master of Science degree and they wonder what it is. So I'm going to try to explain what it is and why it's such an exciting degree to to have. So I'm going to occasionally show this slide that shows the outline of.

What I'm going to cover and where I am in the presentation, please ignore these. There are mistakes on this slide that we couldn't fix because of the system. But I'm going to cover 4 broad things really today, what the PSM degree is and when. When is it better than in a Masters degree and what is the curriculum here at Stockton? And then I also cover, I guess, the most important question where, where will you get a job or will you get a job at or?

And this is where the mistake was. And then how do I apply to the program so?

First things first, what is a PSM degree? A professional Science Masters degree is really a Masters degree. So it's a graduate degree, but instead of it being focused on the content knowledge and research and knowledge for whatever program you are in, whether in biochemistry, environmental science, or computer science, whatever.

Discipline. You are in a professional science. Masters degree focuses on other skills as well. For example, we focus on professional development and so we try to prepare people to work in the professional field. So we don't just assume that if you're taking a masters degree, you're going to go into research or related fields. We also know that a lot of people take these masses are going into these masters programs so that they can.

Advance in whatever profession they are without necessarily going into research. So what we do to make sure that they get those skills, we offer professional writing courses, we offer project management courses. We have them design and work on their capstone that will help them in whatever career they're going to work on working. And then one of the courses that we're developing right now is an ethics course because it's so needed, especially now in industry.

So professional masters degrees are all over the world, really. Now. They are all over the world. They started around 2009 or so, and they are in a range of fields, which I'll discuss in a second. But they are appealing to most people because they make it easy for people who have been in the field for 20 years. I tell my students all the time that I started teaching in 2003 and in the almost 20 years that I've been teaching.

If I did not have to update my skills pretty much in everything that I do from instrumentation, just using geographical information system software and the GPS units we use in the field, I will be out of a job right now, right? My advantage is that I'm at a university. If I want to update my skills, I talk to colleagues or I get books from colleagues and I attend workshops, I do all sorts of things. People in the field also need those things if you've been working for 20 years, 20 years ago in our field.

Personally, geographical information systems was kind of like.

Greek, really, no one really knew what it was. These days you have to understand it. So even if you're in a position where you feel comfortable, if you don't have those skills, the people who are coming in and your supervisor and you don't know what it is that they're doing, it makes it really difficult. So one of the things that we benefit a lot of people who come back for these programs is that they get to update their skills in software and other technology and then we all know how how things have changed in fact.

Two years ago, these types of interactions where we do virtual presentations that are played over and over and over to different audiences, we're not that popular because people just didn't care or they were not used to.

This type of communication. But now this is what most people are doing, their surveys that show that most employees now want to work at least two days at home in. So the virtual work workplace is really important. And so we try to also include those skills for people who are coming back. And then of course there are changes in regulations, changes in policies that are for a lot of people who are in programs where they do not do a lot of professional development.

They they they get left behind. Another thing that we see that benefits a lot of students will come into our program is that they are coming in and four.

Any reason for one reason or the other. They want to change careers. They may have been working in a field where they were making decent money, but they were not happy. Or they felt like they were not really making a change. Or they feel like they've always been curious about combining their field with environmental science, and especially these days with climate change, especially mitigation policies, resiliency policies, and adaptation policies they cut across.

More disciplines.

So even those who are not going to work in environmental science may actually benefit from a professional science degree. And then a lot of students who come into our program also just want to increase their marketability. And when I talk about marketability, someone who already has a job, who doesn't intend to leave that job, but they want to also do other things on the side. I'm thinking about teachers in this case, a lot of teachers, high school teachers have been teaching for decades. We have students.

You've been teaching for 26 years. Who just decided that? Well, I would like to also maybe offer courses as an adjunct at my local college. And in fact, we have two of our students who graduated from our PSM occasionally offer courses in the PSM here as well. So, but they still keep their full time jobs as teachers, which is great.

So uh.

PSM degrees are growing in popularity, so I know a lot of students, or even maybe one of them right now, who may be listening to this and going well.

But if I tell people that I have a PSM degree, would they understand what it is that that the this degree or they would just think this is a fad that is just passing? No, it's not. If you look at what what's been happening since the turn of the century, really the programs that have PSM degrees have skyrocketed. I just came back from a meeting in San Diego where I was just amazed by the breadth and depth of programs that have PSM.

Degrees and this slide shows some of those disciplines that have professional science masters now, especially in San Diego where we were the biotech industry there and in Florida now the PSM degrees that they have in biotech in general and then we saw that in areas that are tech hubs, they also have PSM degrees in IT and.

Uh in forensics, in cybersecurity or those things and in areas where especially here in the New England region, you see that a lot of degrees in environmental science course, our sciences here Stockton, we now have the course was on management PSM also because of where we are. So a lot of the skills that we emphasize are based on our.

Helping you progress in the professional field. So you'll see here that you have we are not going to shortchange you that someone with a masters degree, with just an Ms degree. We have all these skills, but I won't have them because I'm doing professional masters who know we'll keep, we'll keep program competence. You see that the core courses that we offer, which I'll go through in a second, have all those skills, but we are including.

Kate, thank you so, so much. I think that it is unbelievably valuable to get to hear faculty talk about their work, talk about their programs and and it's it's just it's so exciting. So thank you for sharing your words of wisdom for those of us who are joining us live, if you have questions, there is a chat feature. We will be happy to answer any questions you have just type those into the chat.

For those of you who are watching this pre recorded, we're gonna leave this slide up for a few more seconds so you have our contact information and as was mentioned, please reach out to either of us. We would be more than happy to assist you with any questions you have, whether it's about the application process, whether it's about the program itself, whatever the case may be, we're here to assist you through this.

Also just want to share that this program receives applications for both fall and for the spring. And so that's really important. Sometimes, you know, folks think, oh, I can only come, you know, starting in September. That's not the case. You can apply for for both starting in January, end of January and the beginning of September. And the courses are are very, they're small and you've got a lot of 1 on one attention from your faculty. And I think that that's one of the really cool highlights of this program.

And you've got faculty in the field, you know, as was mentioned, who are continuing with their professional development, continuing to to make teaching and learning their priority. And I, I'm sure you can tell that from this presentation itself that Doctor Trendy prides himself on that. And I've known him for a very long time and he is known for just, you know, his wonderful teaching styles and how great his students go off into the world and do wonderful things and that passion goes through and that's really exciting. So.

With that all being said, I don't see any questions in the chat. So again, please take a quick screenshot of our contact information. If you think of anything after the fact, don't hesitate to reach out. But at this time, we are going to conclude our presentation. And again, Doctor Trangie, thank you so, so much for sharing your words of wisdom and your passion for this program. We really appreciate it.

Alright, have a wonderful day everyone. Take care.