Inaugural Class Graduates
Aug 5, 2011
posted in: M. A.
Parents, children and significant others took photographs of the proud graduates during the August 5 luncheon held in honor of the Patel School’s charter class of M.A. students in Global Sustainability. Guests arrived at the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions around noon to find a full agenda featuring professors, advisors and graduates sharing their experiences with the interdisciplinary sustainability program and the internships that took them around the world.
Dr. Kala Vairavamoorthy, director of the Patel School of Global Sustainability, gave the opening address before students were awarded medals by their advisors. The graduates were granted the honor of wearing the medals during the university-wide graduation ceremony held at the St. Pete Times Forum on August 6.
Jo-Anne Swensson joked about studying the sustainability practices of police officers in England during the recent phone hacking scandal, after she took to the podium, but she quickly sobered as she spoke of the fact that Sustainability practices were taken for granted across the pond. “They were confused why [sustainability] wasn’t common practice [in the U.S.]”, she said. Jo-Anne, who was a business major as an undergraduate, went on to praise the interdisciplinary nature of the program, “When you look at sustainability, you have to look at it from all different aspects and that’s what I appreciated the most.”
Maria Booker earnestly repeated the need for better water practices in Accra, Ghana, during her talk at the microphone and Shannee Green discussed the concept of “new water” in Singapore.
The inaugural class of graduates represents a shift on the sustainability front from well-meaning mantra to fact-based science, solution-oriented measures and legitimate career-field. Recently, the International Labor Organization stated that “The global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from 2008 to 2020”. The Wall Street Journal also reports that in the past two years the number of online job postings containing the keyword “sustainability” has more than quadrupled to 8,245 in May, according to Indeed.com.
Efficient use of natural resources has gone from an ideal to a strategic effort employed by governments, organizations and companies. The Patel School of Global Sustainability congratulated its hard-working students before wishing them well in a world that is ready for ingenuity and change.
Find a USF News Article about the graduates here.