I had the pleasure of being the inaugural guest for the 3rd cohort of the Building Climate Career program, by The Environmental Collaboratory at Drexel University, hosted by Miles Levesque and Dr. D.S. (Diana) Nicholas PhD, NCIDQ, AIA, LEED GA. Today, I received Miles’s summary of my talk about my career path, challenges, and outlook. Miles’s words made me smile. I especially like the excerpt below.
“It’s no secret that it’s difficult to work in the climate sector today. However, Dr. Cruz Rios made it clear that this isn’t a reason to give up, it’s a reason to fight harder. Dr. Cruz Rios reminded us to push forward despite it all, saying, “It’s not for the faint of heart [but] we know that it’s important, we know that it’s urgent. We have to keep moving forward”. She also noted that policy related to climate is cyclical; the momentum will come again and we need to be ready when it does.
Besides, Dr. Cruz Rios noted, she cares deeply about this work, she’s not going to abandon it no matter how grim things look. She has a determined form of optimism that combines ideals with hard work. I think we can all learn from her there and follow her advice to hold steadfast in our determination to make the world a better place, no matter how naive it sounds. As Dr. Cruz Rios put it, “If that [utopian vision] is a unicorn, my career is going to be chasing the unicorn. And if I never reach it, I will still have contributed a little bit”.
