Positioning UCF Students for a Career in the Green Economy

As the second largest university in the nation with over 56,000+ students, UCF has the best and the brightest students and gives green companies the chance to recruit and employ the next generation of energy innovators, entrepreneurs, and environmentalists needed to transition us to a sustainable future. To ensure America’s competitiveness in the global marketplace, there is an unprecedented opportunity to embark on new markets that will shift our nation’s jobs focus to include the green industry, to better our overall socio-economic vitality and environmental quality.

On November 30th 2010, UCF held its first Green Jobs Expo. The Expo provided students the opportunity to learn more about the future of the green jobs workforce in different sectors and the ways they could prepare themselves for a job in the Green Economy. The Expo had speakers from the private, public, and non-profit sectors that addressed trends in green jobs and gave students the opportunity to network with these representatives. Afterwards, the U.S. Department of Energy held a separate talk to provide more insight on green jobs at the federal level. Over 125 people participated on the day!

Speakers included the U.S. Department of Energy, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Orange County's Environmental Protection Division , the US Green Building Council, the Florida Department of Transportation, Florida Solar Energy Center, UCF Dining, UCF's department of Sustainability & Energy Management, UCF's department of Landscape and Natural Resources, Pur Energy, and WinderLumen LED.

The event was hosted by UCF's department of Sustainability & Energy Management, Career Services, and the Student Government Association. Below are the presentations from the U.S. Department of Energy's keynote and evening sessions. For those that participated, please provide us with your feedback about the event so that we can determine if we should host this event again and how we can make it better. If you have already provided feedback, there is no need to re-submit it.