Angela Whittaker, Director at Full Circle Schools, participated in the National Wildlife Federation Sustainability and CTE Symposium held at the NWF headquarters in Reston on April 26.

Whittaker presented on how the changing climate will impacts jobs and careers of the current high schoolers over their lifetimes. The symposium was held in order to better define career pathways into the new and transforming jobs of the future linked to a growing green economy. Whittaker also shared how the Full Circle Model of instruction empowers young people to shape their dreams and engage the climate issues predicted to impact them during the next 60 years.

Educators across the Commonwealth and D.C. Metro area are working to include these sustainability concepts at all levels of K-12 education. Whittaker’s work over the past 10 years to train teachers in sustainability, renewable technologies and develop an Education for Sustainability Program won national recognition in 2014 garnering her the invitation to the event.

“The symposium continues and deepens the work I have been doing with the department of education over the past few years to create career pathways and courses that prepare students for the workforce as it alters due to the impacts of the changing climate,” Whittaker said. “We know these students will live in an economy dramatically altered by the demand for sustainably produced and ‘greener’ products. As we educate them about how their consumption of products, water and energy impacts our natural resources, they can make wiser decisions as the adults and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. The students in K-12 schools right now will be the ones to redefine and redesign every aspect of our economy, the products and tools we use in our daily lives. Part of the reason I formed Full Circle Schools is to create the classroom and educational model that could produce students with the resiliency, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills to reengineer our world. It is nice to see the public schools continuing to integrate sustainability in their academic planning.”