Connecting Diverse Youth to Outdoor Careers

Professor Charlie Nilon stumbled upon his career like a hiker might stumble across a fawn on a forest trail.

Nilon, who is the William J. Rucker Professor in Fisheries and Wildlife at the School of Natural Resources at the University of Missouri, grew up in Boulder, Colorado.

Dr. Charlie Nilon, photo by Kyle Spradley for University of Missouri

He took long walks with his father, who regaled him with stories of fishing and the woods of rural Alabama. He imagined that the ditch they often passed by, where he’d catch tadpoles, was a river.

Dr. Charlie Nilon, courtesy of University of Missouri

Yet while Nilon loved nature, he didn’t learn that love could lead to an actual job until he went to college.

That was when his advisor at Morehouse College, where he earned his undergraduate degree, told him it could.

“I went hiking and fishing and everything,” Nilon said. “I got National Geographic, I subscribed to Colorado Outdoors and Wildlife Magazine, but I never connected that with a career. I just thought it was something fun to do,” he says. “It wasn’t until I finished college and undergrad that I realized natural resources and wildlife conservation was something I could pursue as a career.”

Unlike Nilon, many Black youth and youths of color never come to that realization.

One measure of that disconnect can be found in 2017 data – the most recent available – from DATAUSA . That year, Black students earned only 2.9 percent of the 7,996 environment science degrees awarded in the U.S. White students earned the highest number of those degrees – 68.7 percent. They were followed by Latinos at 9.7 percent; Asians at 5 percent; non-resident aliens at 4.3 percent; two or more races at 4.2 percent; unknown races at 3.6 percent and Native Americans and Pacific Islanders at 1 percent and 0.2 percent.

Those numbers aren’t particularly surprising to Eboni Preston, director of operations for Greening Youth Foundation. The Atlanta organization focuses on helping youths from diverse backgrounds find careers in nature.

Eboni Preston, Greening Youth Foundation

Environmental and conservation careers, she said, aren’t usually discussed or considered by Black families.

“Even for me and my mom, who is the most supportive mother ever, when I said I wanted to work in conservation she said, ‘What?” Preston said.

That’s likely why, while Preston would like for the youths in its K-12 program to pursue conservation careers, many tend to focus on aspects of it, like wellness and medicine.

“What we try to show them is that there’s an opportunity to work in this space, and not just in traditional roles,” said Preston, who had originally planned to become a doctor when she learned that her biology degree could lead to a nature career.  “That’s what we’re saying [to students]. If you want to be a doctor, then by all means do that. But we’re also saying that you have other options.”

Greening Youth Foundation participants in Spelhouse Service day, photo by Yero Winborne

So, how should organizations build diverse students’ interest in nature careers?

To Nilon, organizations involved in that work should make sure that the students, while in high school, are exposed to Black and other diverse role models who are actually working in that space.

“There was a program here in southeast Missouri that was designed to introduce Black kids to careers in natural resources,” Nilon said. “But even in this program that was designed to recruit them, they didn’t see anyone who was doing anything outside who looked like them.”

School counselors, Nilon said, also must help youths explore more possibilities when they say they want to work with nature. “In high school, a lot of times when students say they’re interested in outdoor careers, the first response from the guidance counselor is, ‘Oh, so you want to be a veterinarian?“ he said. “Animal science is a great major, but that’s not what they meant when they said outdoors.”

Preston said that it might also help to understand cultural barriers that hamper Black youth and other youth of color from pursuing conservation careers.

“I sit on the board of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy,” Preston said. “In one conversation, I was saying, ‘Hey, you see those trees and you see a forest. My grandmother sees those trees and she thinks about lynchings.’ These are very different perspectives that you don’t want to gloss over,” she said.

Yet if Black and other students of color pursue nature careers, a world of possibilities await, Nilon said. Besides jobs as horticulturalists, park rangers and wildlife managers, environmental studies can be a gateway to other careers.

“One thing I like about the field is that if you have a pretty good background and exposure to a couple classes it can open up a lot to you,” Nilon said. “We’ve had people who’ve gone into journalism and people who’ve gone on to teach. We’ve had people who’ve become biologists. [Nature and environmental organizations] hire artists, they hire writers, they hire data managers.”

Professor Charlie Nilon (left) with students at Tyson Research Center, photo by University of Missouri Undergrad Research via Creative Commons

Another thing: To help Black youths and youths from diverse backgrounds discover the possibilities of nature careers, like Nilon and Preston, more must be exposed to nature. 

That can be difficult for those who live in urban environments defined by expanses of asphalt, not nature parks.

But, Nilon said, since the pandemic has gripped the nation, he’s seeing more people of color making trips to outdoor spaces.

“I’ve noticed more Black people on the trails since COVID-19,” he said. “Maybe that’s going to be a start to getting kids interested [in nature work]. And maybe you tell them stories.”

And later, show them how those stories can lead to careers. Like they did for Nilon and Preston.

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