Pathways to the Environment and Sustainability
Get to know four Beloiters who are working around the country and the world in careers related to sustainability, resource management, and clean energy.
Beloit alumni who majored in environmental studies, geology, and international relations have found careers related to sustainability, resource management, and clean energy, some in far-flung places as the new School of Environment and Sustainability is preparing current students to follow in their footsteps.
Corey Shircliff ’11
Senior Geologist at Cavern Solutions, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
- Major: Geology
Who at Beloit influenced you?
Carl Mendelson, professor emeritus of geology. When I arrived at Beloit without a strong path toward any major, he suggested I take a geology course. I loved both the material and the quirky, small department. I’ve had a wonderful career in the geological sciences so far, and it never would have happened if it weren’t for Carl and his goofy dinosaur t-shirts.
What are you most proud of in your career?
Leading the team that helped the Louisiana DNR navigate the emerging carbon sequestration technology and working with the Environmental Protection Agency to build a state-level program for its management. When I was tasked with creating the program in 2019, I was mostly unfamiliar with carbon sequestration. The Louisiana DNR now has an unbiased, science-based program that incorporates public engagement and siting analyses. I’m honored to have been a part of this effort and proud of the team that executed it.
What first got you interested in the environment?
I grew up in Kentucky, which is a huge coal-producing state. When I was in high school, the coal industry started to decline, and I saw firsthand what that meant for communities. At Beloit, I went on some cool geology field trips all over the U.S. (Nevada, Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, New York) and I studied abroad in New Zealand, which was a defining experience of my life. These adventures led me to become interested in how we can responsibly source our energy needs, and the value of sustainability and diversity in our energy sources.
What has been unexpected about your career?
Just about everything! I envisioned myself as a park ranger geologist, but the reality is that I spend most of my day at a computer — working in spreadsheets, generating geologic maps and interpretations, and piecing together information about the subsurface from many different sources. In grad school at Louisiana State University, I studied some of the earliest records of life (extremely old algal mats and stromatolites); however, my career has not touched on the Archean since. But all of my geologic adventures helped me [become] a professional geoscientist who can be deployed on a wide range of projects.
I had a wonderful time at Beloit. I graduated prepared for grad school, ready to dive into my next learnings, and I’ve tried to preserve that mentality throughout my career. Every now and then, I’ll run into a Beloit grad at a conference, and we always talk about how lucky we were to choose the geology program at Beloit.
Emma Koeppel ’16
Small Business Owner at Hearts Weaving Hope, LLC, Waukesha, Wisconsin
- Hometown: Lake Mills, Wisconsin
- Majors: Environmental geology; biology minor
How did your Beloit activities affect your career or life?
I lived in the Outdoor Environmental Club (OEC) house, and that helped me understand community. We cooked together in the co-op, which was an awesome daily rhythm, and I went on backpacking trips with them over fall and spring breaks. I was also involved in music (choir, jazz band, wind ensemble). I was part of Sustainability Fellows and other summer research programs, which helped me build confidence and understand what I was interested in.
Who at Beloit influenced you?
[Professor Emerita of Art History] Jo Ortel was my First-Year Initiatives professor and advisor. She helped me understand the expansive potential of the word “sustainability,” and the social and community layers of the environmental field. The way she invited me into summer research collaboration boosted my confidence and helped me step more fully into myself.
[Professor of Biology and current Registrar] Yaffa Grossman was also a major influence. She helped me to see that there were tangible, hands-on ways I could apply what I was learning. With her guidance and collaboration, I participated in the Sustainability Fellows program and studied native landscaping on campus. And
[Professor of English] Chris Fink — even though I only took one writing class with him, it unearthed the writer inside of me.
What do you like best about your current job?
Through Hearts Weaving Hope, I hold the mission of reweaving webs of kinship that foster collective resilience and collaboration. I offer grief tending, community song circles, and energy work. While this work is not explicitly in the environmental field, my work continues to center sustainability. The community building and community care aspects of social sustainability are incredibly important as we face climate, economic, and social unrest. Having reliable and resilient networks of connection between each other, and between humans and the earth, feels incredibly important. I’m proud of taking such a big leap to change my career path. It asked for so much trust on my part, and a real willingness to be okay with not knowing how things would turn out.
What first got you interested in the environment?
I was deeply connected to nature from a young age, growing up on a little five-acre piece of land and having a lot of encouragement from my dad to be outside. As a family, we camped often during the summer, and I took a lot of hikes with family and on my own once I could bike or drive myself to the nearest park. The outdoors was always a place of deep respite for me. When I came to Beloit in 2012, that was the first time I heard about climate change — they hadn’t taught about it at my high school. The intimacy that I had developed with nature, coupled with this shock of learning of so much devastation, made me committed to a path in the sustainability field. Care for the earth continues to be a guiding value in my life and work.
What has been unexpected about your career?
I never had a clear vision of what my career would look like. What I did have a clear vision of was my values. I remember during my junior year writing a list that included “things I enjoy spending my time on” and “places I like to be.” This helped me to respond to job opportunities that came my way. I continue to orient to my values, rather than orienting to a specific career path. It makes for an exciting mixture of faith, surprises, and unexpected possibilities.
Thaowan Giorno ’17
Master’s Degree Student in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, Europe
- Hometown: Bangkok, Thailand
- Major: Ecology, evolution, and behavioral biology
Thaowan Giorno spent a year after graduation doing field work, monitoring water quality and collecting data in Northern California under the Watershed Stewards Program. After moving back to Thailand, she spent five years as an environment program assistant for Raks Thai Foundation, working on projects that included community-based adaptation, climate-smart agriculture, water education, and biodiversity financing. She also coordinated efforts between the organization and donors and worked with local communities on climate change adaptation initiatives. She’s enrolled in a master’s program in environmental science, policy, and management through the EU program Erasmus, and is currently at Central European University in Vienna, Austria.
What did you learn at Beloit that helped you in your career?
In Theta Pi Gamma, I gained networking and leadership skills that I still use to this day. I learned how to make friends as a young adult, which I found to be quite different from when I was in high school. This has been useful for developing friendships and connections in my work life. Being involved with OEC’s events, especially the backpacking trips, amplified my interest to work in the environmental field. Before Beloit, I had never gone backpacking. I am grateful to OEC for the joys and beautiful views from those trips.
What are you most proud of in your career?
At Raks Thai Foundation, a project on climate-smart agriculture that was funded by the European Union was the only project I was involved in from the initial conception of the project to the implementation and completion. It felt like I was watching a child grow. This was one of the first project proposals I was involved in writing, and the fact that it got accepted and we were able to implement most of the planned activities, even with the challenges of COVID-19, is an experience that I will remember dearly for the rest of my life.
Why Beloit?
I wanted my college experience to be very different from the living and learning environment I had been in up until that point in my life. Most of my friends applied to the same universities in Bangkok. I felt like I needed to push myself out of my comfort zone and try something new, but I had always learned in a small classroom environment, and this was one condition I wanted to remain the same. With this in mind, I picked Beloit, and I can say that it did not disappoint me.
Patrick Diggins ’05
Senior Technical Director at AKRF, Inc., New York City, New York
- Hometown: Merrimack, New Hampshire
- Major: Geology
Patrick Diggins is the senior technical director at AKRF, Inc., an environmental consulting firm that evaluates projects in the land development, transportation, energy, and water sectors for potential environmental contamination. He has worked on the remediation of dozens of petroleum and chemical spills and helped make those places safer, particularly for children who are most directly affected by environmental contamination.
What experiences at Beloit have helped you in your career?
Being a year-round runner taught me the value of routine and discipline. With my regular class load, the evening labs, RA responsibilities, and my seven-day-a-week running commitment, my days were always full. Success when your days are so full is dependent on sticking to the schedule and being disciplined about your tasks. Being a head RA taught invaluable interaction skills that I use with my family, clients, and colleagues on a daily basis.
Who at Beloit influenced you?
Sue Swanson had the biggest influence on me. She is the best scientist I have worked with, and I still think “what would Sue do?” when I tackle a difficult work assignment. I took her Environmental Geology and Hydrogeology classes my freshman year. What I learned from those classes (and many of the subsequent science and liberal arts classes I took) was that the world was indeed as messed up as it appeared to that 18-year-old, but that I could try to make it a little better using logic and reason. These days, when the minutiae of daily work life starts to bog me down, I try to focus on the science, and that helps keep me grounded.
I was also influenced by John Winkelmann [associate dean of students emeritus]. He was the guy who you had to see when your youthful weekend antics got out of control (and my youthful antics did occasionally get out of control!). John was kind and patient. Being a proper grown-up means being the bad guy sometimes, especially with my supervisees at work and with my son at home.
What is your current position?
I’m currently moving from middle management to upper management at the environmental consulting firm where I’ve been for the last 10 years. I like the niche I’ve carved out for myself here. I’m viewed as a subject matter expert in my field (geology) and as a person who advocates for disadvantaged folks and for our young staff.
What has been unexpected about your career?
All of it. I was a naive kid from a small town in New Hampshire. My parents are good people and live an honest life, but I knew I needed to take a slightly different path than theirs. I left Beloit with the knowledge that I wanted to be a practicing geologist and I wanted to improve the environment, and that was about it. I do think having a core idea of myself and not a well defined set of career steps has allowed me to be flexible when opportunities arise. The opportunities I took led me down sometimes unexpected paths, and I’m happy with the results thus far.
Why Beloit?
The high school I went to was a fine institution of learning, but it valued conformity to a patriarchal system that I just didn’t fit into. Beloit felt like a safe place for a quirky kid, and allowed me to be more open-minded and more accepting of myself, which helped me grow as a person and honestly assess my strengths and my weaknesses. I’ll never know what the other Patricks are experiencing in their versions of the multiverse, but I genuinely believe that I’m on one of the good timelines, and I credit a lot of that to my time at Beloit.
