{"id":37068,"date":"2016-01-04T14:58:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T18:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=37068"},"modified":"2016-01-05T10:25:01","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T14:25:01","slug":"grad-student-earns-international-internship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/01\/grad-student-earns-international-internship\/","title":{"rendered":"Grad student earns international internship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brock graduate student Christine Janzen went around the world to find an internship opportunity with the world\u2019s oldest and largest global environmental organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Janzen, a master\u2019s student in Brock\u2019s Sustainability Science and Society<\/a> program, will be working alongside counterparts in New York and Switzerland until May as part of an internship program for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The opportunity for the internship came up while Janzen was in Beijing last October for the first-ever World Forum on Ecosystem Governance. She\u00a0was one of 20 student delegates from around the world to take part in the forum\u2019s Future Leaders Academy. The IUCN was one of several organizations that partnered to hold the Beijing conference.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be gathering case studies as examples of successful and unsuccessful nature-based solutions applied in the effort to tackle global challenges such as climate change, poverty and food security.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI found out about the internship while at the conference,\u201d she says. \u201cI connected with IUCN representatives in between sessions and was offered the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The internship focuses on nature-based solutions \u2014 one of IUCN\u2019s key priorities in finding pragmatic solutions to the most pressing environmental, climatic and development challenges. IUCN supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world, and brings governments, NGOs, the United Nations and companies together to develop policies, laws, guidelines and best practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be gathering case studies as examples of successful and unsuccessful nature-based solutions applied in the effort to tackle global challenges such as climate change, poverty and food security,\u201d Janzen explains.<\/p>\n

Heading home from China with the internship was the ultimate conference souvenir for Janzen \u2014 an experience in which she contributed to discussions, involving 150 leading experts from around the world, about ways to respond to ecosystem threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing at the conference was phenomenal. It was inspiring to meet so many people of like-mind and who are working toward a common goal,\u201d Janzen says. \u201cIt makes what you do individually very tangible. It was interesting to hear what people, from around the world, are doing within their communities. It was very multi-disciplinary in scope.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key thing that was stressed over and over again was the importance of collaboration across disciplines, social sectors and governmental levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janzen\u2019s supervisor, Brock University biologist Liette Vasseur, was one of\u00a0the program leaders of the forum and led the theme on implementing the United Nations\u2019 17 Sustainable Development Goals<\/a> (SDGs). Vasseur, who holds a UNESCO Chair in Sustainability, was one of seven experts from around the globe who co-wrote the Beijing Declaration on Governing Ecosystems for Human Wellbeing based on the discussions from the forum. The declaration was presented at the recent\u00a0United Nations Conference on Climate Change, or \u201cCOP 21,\u201d<\/a> in Paris, France.<\/p>\n

One of the key points made in the Beijing Declaration, and included in the Paris Agreement, is the need for quality education on environmental climate change and ecosystem governance issues from kindergarten to the post-secondary level.<\/p>\n

Janzen\u2019s master\u2019s research paper is focused on sustainability education in Ontario high schools. The context for her paper is the Ministry of Education\u2019s 2009 decision, to introduce additional environmental sustainability curriculum as part of high school courses. Janzen is focusing on geography and science subject areas and has interviewed high school teachers about their perspectives on the current curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, the teachers with whom I\u2019ve spoken are all passionate about environmental issues,\u201d Janzen says. \u201cThey view the new curriculum as engaging and relevant and try to connect the curriculum to local community issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Related stories:\u00a0https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2015\/10\/brock-researchers-involved-in-world-forum-focused-on-ecosystem-threats\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2015\/11\/brock-biologist-co-writes-beijing-declaration-on-ecosystem-governance\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brock graduate student Christine Janzen went around the world to find an internship opportunity with the world\u2019s oldest and largest global environmental organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":37069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,188,55],"tags":[3675,3674,3231],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37068"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37084,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37068\/revisions\/37084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}