Guests educate students on career opportunities in DNR, DEQ and local health departments
For college students, the desperate search for work after graduation is a natural part of life.
Tom Roher, Director of the Great Lakes Institute for Sustainable Systems, held a discussion Friday to expedite the process by informing students of career opportunities within the state.
"There are scientific jobs, PR positions, journalism jobs and much more available for students in these fields," Rohrer said.
Rohrer led an engaging discussion with students, enlisting the help of retired Department of Natural Resources and Department of Environmental Quality employee Patrick Donovan and his wife Sandee Donovan, retired administrator for the DNR and later Michigan State Police. Jeff Spencer from the DEQ walked students through opportunities in Consulting and Public sectors.
"There's something beyond being gainfully employed," Rohrer said. You can become a professional practitioner."
Students of all majors participated in the discussion, including Spencer's son, Eaton Rapids freshman Jake Spencer.
"I like the idea of helping others or helping the environment," Spencer said. "I like the thought that what I'm doing could be helping people."
Midland graduate Dale Brown, who is seeking a second bachelor's degree in philosophy and works for the Creative Rebuilding Company in Midland, was seeking to expand his horizons.
"I'm already a residential building analyst and I would like to move into a career that has a more broad scope," Brown said.
The presenters pointed out that state and federal agencies are actively seeking new employees.
"We're civil servants first and we're not starving," Rohrer said. "We've all had two or three careers but you could have twenty. The information comes so fast now, and if you can master it, you could embark on endeavors that we never could."
"Go after your passion," Donovan said. "Go after what you love, focus on that because there's a lot of opportunity here."
The four gave students actual accounts of their lives as civil servants, including some surprises on the job.
Patrick Donovan told students a story of a particularly hazardous situation he encountered when he worked for the Barry County Health Department in 1979. A graduate student at the University of Michigan and his family were frequently falling ill due to the poor quality of his well water. After doing some looking, Donovan was shocked to discover dead and decomposing animals in the well.
"The plumbing in the house had become so inundated with bacteria that there were crevices in the plumbing where bacteria had established themselves," Donovan said.
The graduate student had recently spent nearly $2,000 trying to fix various sanitation-related issues around his home, and was adamant about not paying for further repairs.
"He was having a bad week and I was having a bad week, I wasn't going to try to win him over," Donovan said. "I asked him if there was anything I could do to change his mind. 'Nope, he said.' So I walked to my truck and took out a red and white placard. He said 'what are you doing? I said,'I'm going to condemn your house.'"
The student ended up paying for the repairs after all.
This graduate student was Tom Rohrer. Suffice to say, the two have become closer in the years since.
"He was doing his job," Rohrer said. "I couldn't talk him out of it. My home was a health hazard and waste was running into a ditch on the highway."
