“You don’t need to have an environmental career to be an environmental steward,” says Charlotte Reader (BA ’19, MPH ’22), who was a Program in the Environment (PitE) major when she pursued her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan. Now a senior certification associate with Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), managing end-to-end LEED and TRUE certifications, Reader says that much of what she learned about the intersection of business and sustainability practices in PitE played a significant role in shaping her career.

“I recall learning about greenwashing and the importance of ensuring that environmental claims are credible and meaningful. That idea has stayed with me, and it’s a big part of why I was drawn to GBCI,” says Reader. “Working for a third-party organization that verifies sustainability claims allows me to contribute to preventing greenwashing and to support a rigorous, transparent certification process backed by thorough review and accountability.”

Reader, who specialized in environmental health, says choosing to major in PitE, a collaborative degree between the School for Environment and Sustainability and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, was an easy decision after taking her first earth science class and feeling inspired to learn more. She enhanced her interests by adding a minor in gender and health, which she pursued further when she returned to U-M for graduate school, earning a Master of Public Health. 

During her time at PitE, Reader says she had access to a variety of experiences, including at a field station, an internship, and experiential classes. The summer after her sophomore year, she participated in the Camp Davis program in Wyoming, where she and her peers were completely immersed in an outdoor classroom environment. 

“It was an amazing experience. Just being in the mountains, being in a different environment outside of school and taking a class. It was very unique.”

In the fall of her junior year, Reader became a campaign intern for the Sierra Club, where she canvassed for Gretchen Driskell, a former Michigan State Representative and current Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner. She says she believes that these types of experiences are really important as an undergraduate student, and would encourage others to “take advantage of as many experiences that push you out of your comfort zone.” 

Reader also took an ecology course at the University of Michigan Biological Station, or the Biostation, as it’s lovingly known to students, a large field research station in the northern part of the lower peninsula, used for courses, research, and community building. 

Along with her less-traditional classroom experiences, Reader discusses her regular courses, such as general ecology. She recounts her favorite memory from her time at PitE, which took place in ecology, when her professor surprised the class with their first barred owl sighting. The professor invited the class to meet after dark for a surprise, brought them to a dirt road where they had to remain silent, and blasted the van radio with the barred owl call. Doing so made two territorial barred owls swoop in, trying to identify the other competitive owl.  

After graduating in 2019, Reader spent a year with Americorps working for City Year, a program that supports students in their education, interpersonal skills, and workforce development in underserved city communities around the country, before returning to pursue her master’s degree.

“Despite it not having anything to do with sustainability, it taught me so many lessons about what it means to be a hard worker and be persistent, put yourself second, and learn how to work with people that you do not know,” she says, tying back to her sentiment that being an environmental steward is about so much more than what we study.