NCDEQ Hosts Career Panel for Wake County Middle School Students for Students@Work℠ Program.

On February 23rd, the Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs held a Students@Work℠ virtual career panel for 23 Science Olympiad students from Moore Square Magnet Middle School. The Students@Work℠ program serves a critical role in our state's work-based learning efforts by helping local students become aware of potential careers and the necessary skillsets for those careers.

The 2022 Students@Work℠ initiative includes 150 employers and approximately 27,000 students statewide. During the month of February and March, students will engage in virtual programs that will help them learn firsthand about the careers available throughout the state and in their local communities.

During the NCDEQ career panel, students had the opportunity to talk with four professionals from different divisions in NCDEQ including: 

Diana Felix, an engineer in the permitting branch of waste management. Diana has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and is studying to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam to become a licensed professional engineer.

Tony Pendola, an environmental engineer who serves as our department’s Small Business Ombudsman and is the director of the Small Business Environmental Assistance Program. Tony serves as an advocate for small businesses in the regulatory development and compliance enforcement realms. In 2014, he was on a team that won the Governor’s Award for saving NC Citizens tens of millions of dollars each year on unnecessary special summertime gasoline blends. 

Victoria Thayer, Ph.D., a conservation biologist with the NC Division of Marine Fisheries, is the Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for North Carolina and responds to marine mammal strandings on estuarine and ocean shorelines. Vicky performs necropsies on stranded dolphins, whales, seals, and manatees to collect information on life history, disease, contaminants, and feeding ecology. Vicky teaches for NC State University CMAST and collaborates with UNC Wilmington, NC, Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, the NC Maritime Museum, and local towns and municipalities.

Shelby White, a biologist with marine fisheries. Shelby is working on the southern flounder satellite tagging project with the NC Division of Marine Fisheries to determine the migration behavior and spawning location of southern flounder. 

Students asked the panel about their careers, their career paths, and challenges for their profession. The DEQ employees gave helpful advice on how the students can connect their passions and interests with potential careers and how students can begin to develop the qualifications necessary for working in STEM fields through internships, job shadowing, and other opportunities.

The Students@Work℠ program is a joint initiative between the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

For more information about the Department's participation in Students@Work℠ Month, contact the Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs at www.eenorthcarolina.org. For more information about NCBCE, visit ncbce.org.