Weinberg College
of Arts & Sciences

Waldron Career Insights: Impactful Classes for Sustainability and Entrepreneurship

Cassie Petoskey:
Welcome to the Weinberg in the World Podcast, where we bring you stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world.
This episode is brought to you by the Waldron Student-Alumni Connections Program, where we help Weinberg College students explore career options through connecting with alumni.
In today's episode, we are excited to feature a few clips from this year's Weinberg College Career Summit Alumni Panels, where a few alumni share stories about some of their most impactful classes and how those classes helped them in their future careers.
First is a clip from the Energy and Sustainability Alumni Panel, where Ariel Drehobl, who graduated from Weinberg College in 2012, and Mark Silberg, who graduated from Weinberg College in 2014, discuss a wide variety of classes in economics, psychology, history and law that shaped the way they think about environmental issues.

Ariel Drehobl:
I also wasn't really sure what I wanted to do specifically, so I took a lot of different types of classes when I was at Northwestern.
Some of the ones I liked the most were ... I took a class on the history of the environment. I did major in history and wrote an undergrad thesis on the intersection of history and the environment as well, and I found that class really eyeopening to me, just thinking about how ... I think that class helped open my eyes to how environmentalism historically has kind of tried to separate itself from people in certain ways, and it really shouldn't be. So that was helpful for me.
I also took a class on conservation psychology, I don't know if they still have that class, which was really interesting about psychology and the environment and how they interact with each other, which I really liked.
Also took some classes on US environmental politics. The Economics of Climate Change was a class I took. I took a class on religion and ecology, which was also really interesting. And also environmental law and policy I think was a class I took.
So just a wide variety of different things, which I think helped shape the way that I think about climate change and the environment, which was really helpful leading into my master's program as well.

Mark Silberg:
One of the ways I think about this question is, when you look at energy and sustainability issues, it's sort of like a horizontal that cuts across every part of our world and economy, from the basic physics, climate change, all the way through to politics and the business community.
In some ways, I feel like every class I took in Northwestern is or could be related to this field. And so I would echo the sentiment of some of my peers here, that really following whatever interests you is a helpful starting point.
In terms of the practical reality of things I use in my day-to-day work, I think some of the classes on the economics of climate change and energy markets have been hugely helpful and just foundational information that, if you sort of learn it early, it'll never leave you, and you can totally wonk out with people who otherwise might not take you too seriously.
The NUvention energy class, being able to work with Kellogg MBA students and other undergrads who are in different fields than I was, was remarkable, just to understand that business perspective and how that world works a little bit.
There was a class taught through the law school on environmental law, which comes up every single day around the Clean Air Act and NEPA, and how permitting works. And the history there is just a remarkable story, and also something that's very, very real and very practical in all of this work.
And then there was a class that taught the economics policy, and that was, I think, the most crosscutting, both historical and theoretical, way of thinking about the problem, which continues to be really influential in [inaudible 00:03:37].

Cassie Petoskey:
Next is a clip from the Startups and Entrepreneurship Alumni Panel, where Jin Won, who graduated from Weinberg College in 2001, speaks on the value of the courses he took outside of his economics major. Courses on Buddhism, English, and writing taught him how to form arguments, which has helped him every step of the way through his career to build narratives and describe the value of what he does.

Jin Won:
I guess what I have to share is that just embrace the experience and try to learn from everything as much as you can. It took me like 20 years to figure this out.
When you're dealing with people, and for the time being before AI really starts to take off and we're still kind of engaged with one another, the core root of just what makes people tick, like, "Why would you do something?", it's being really clear about the narrative, really being able to articulate why something is important, why you should do this, why you should buy this. And so I think it's really important for everyone to, and I'm going to talk from a product perspective, to be able to be really good at selling.
You're only really able to do that, at least from what I found, to try to tie this back to my experience with Northwestern, is being able to actually articulate what it is, like why something matters.
And so I would say that courses that I look back and I think I really loved was Introduction to Buddhism, all of my English classes; anything that really challenged me to write a coherent idea and really explain to a stranger why I thought my point was particularly important or interesting.
I'll share my experience. I definitely learned that writing well, writing an idea well; this ties back to [inaudible 00:05:22] being able to sell something, being able to excel an idea very quickly to a stranger or to a large group of people to say, "Oh, yes, I'm going to do that" without having a meeting, that's going to be very important; to be able to sit in a room across from someone and really articulate why they should listen, why this is important.
And so any classes that help you really think like that, where you're able to make a connection as a human being with someone else that's a complete stranger and find a common accord right away, I would highly recommend you seeking that out.

Cassie Petoskey:
Thanks for listening. If you want to hear more of these conversations, links to the full videos and podcasts are in the show notes.
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Have a great day, and Go 'Cats.