To be part of the planetary stewardship movement, students of the 21st century need to engage in activities that promote a sustainable future for our planet. Though undergraduate and graduate students in ecology are in school primarily to become excellent scientists, in order to solve the current global challenges we face, they also need support and training to become planetary stewards. During their career training path, our soon-to-be planetary steward students need support to engage in activities that promote stewardship in their families, institutions, communities, countries, and our planet Earth. Activities such as scientific outreach, science education, volunteering, community involvement, and starting non-profit organizations will expose the students to the reality outside the research world molding them during their scientific training to also become a steward.
Results/Conclusions
Experiences shared from several students during their training have found that the status quo is in stark contrast to this ideal. In a study of more than 260 ESA students, 77% of students believed volunteering and consulting to be the least important activity. Furthermore, only 12% of them engaged in an ecologically related activity that supported increasing the diversity of the ecology field or participated in a general scientific outreach activity. This has to change. This talk will illustrate some of the challenges, real or perceived, for students to be engaged in planetary stewardship activities. We will also share the innovative ways in which some students have engaged in such activities without compromising their scientific training. We hope that this talk will be help us construct a new dialogue that future students and faculty interested in the planetary stewardship movement will have in the future.