Thursday, January 21, 2016

McCrory’s Environmental Department Connects NC Educators With Jobs

The Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs in the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality is seeing an early influx in the number of jobs and internships posted to its website. The site reflects governor McCrory’s commitment to providing educators with professional opportunities and much-needed resources by serving as a statewide clearinghouse for environmental education tools and hosting job postings.  It also features a grant database and an interactive calendar that includes professional development opportunities for educators, field trip opportunities and family events.

Environmental education-related job postings typically pick up in February as organizations prepare for summer camps and other seasonal opportunities. However, job postings began to spike in early December for both seasonal and full-time education positions. Along with the increased traffic, the office has heard positive feedback from both employers who are hiring educators and educators who are looking for positions. Suzanne Mwengi, Membership and Outreach Coordinator with the Friends of the Western North Carolina Nature Center said, “I just wanted to thank you again for posting our position to your listserv and allowing us to post it to your website!  We’ve now filled the position.  We had several applicants state that they heard about the position from the EE listing.” The office’s jobs listing had about 6,000 page views in December and has already received 5,500 views in January.

In addition to the popular jobs listing, which receives an average of 4,600 website views a month, the office also maintains an ongoing list of grants for educators that gets an equal amount of views. One recent success story came from Jessica Kellerman, a teacher with Sandy Grove Elementary in Hoke County who received a grant posted to the site. “I just wanted to thank you again for the wonderful website. I have used it to find local sites to take my special education students on field trips and I recently secured a grant to put an adaptable swing outside for recess for students in wheelchairs from a grant found on your website. When I was at NCCAT this week I shared the website with fellow educators because I know it is a resource that is organized and up to date.”
The office encourages agencies and organizations to use the site to advertise their workshops, events and positions. To learn more about all the resources offered by the Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs, you can visit their website at www.eenorthcarolina.org