UW Certificate in Wetland Science & Management: Alumni Spotlight

Alum Rebecca Bramwell explains how the UW Certificate in Wetland Science & Management and the connections she made in the program were the key to jump-starting her career and planning for her future. To learn more, visit: https://www.pce.uw.edu/certificates/w...

This video was made possible by JSOL STUDIOS, who allowed our team to film on their nature preserve in Auburn, WA.
JSOL STUDIOS' mission is to create restorative family-centered wellness experiences centered in Afro-Indigenous Wisdom. https://www.jsolstudios.com

Video Transcript:

[Rebecca Bramwell] I've been really passionate about environmental science since I was a teenager. [Wetlands are a really important ecological resource.] I really wanted to be a part of making the world a better place and protecting our ecosystems.

I went on to get my bachelor's in environmental science and Cultural and Global Studies. When I moved back to Seattle, I really was ready to start my career. I was really passionate about what I was doing, but I didn't have a lot of state specific trainings or credentials under my belt, and I was asking a lot of professionals what credentials they had that helped them start their career. And a lot of them had done this program.

It's incredibly rigorous, but that's one of the reasons that it is so well-respected and why it has such a good reputation. The program is taught by working professionals who have decades of experience in this industry, who play a critical role in developing the policies in our state. The first week, we start on something that's called a practicum, and our practicum was a nine month long research project that was built around an area of interest for us. I got a chance to use water quality tools, water quality probes, measure water quality throughout this restored wetland, determine if this wetland is improving water quality as water moves through it, which I did find to be true.

This program absolutely trains you all of the skills that you need to finish and immediately start working and do this job efficiently and accurately. We have a practicum coordinator who meets with all of us individually and then has all of these professionals who have volunteered their time and personally matches you with somebody who is going to teach you the most and be the best mentor for the work that you're doing. That kind of direct mentorship and just the openness to share anything that they know and have learned so willingly I think is something really special to this certificate in particular. You also have all of your faculty members who get to know you. They get to know the quality of your work. They become professional contacts for you. The networking opportunities are endless.

The week that I finished the program, I had seen an email come out from one of the faculty members who was sharing a job listing that a local environmental consulting firm had shared with him. I sent in my resume. I got a call that day. I set up an interview two days later and I was hired two days after that. And I had this very powerful feeling that I truly arrived.

I still have butterflies every day that I get to introduce myself as a wetland scientist. One of the things I really love about my job is I have a great mix of working in the office, writing technical reports and working out in the field in my Carhartts and my orange vest with my machete. I am so fulfilled in what I do every day. My line of work that I've gone into directly plays a role in protecting critical ecosystems that are going to make a huge difference in the health, the safety, the biodiversity of our region forever.