THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX: THE PREPARING OUR WORKFORCE (POW) INITIATIVE

Our community continually strives to close the workforce supply gap as geoscience professionals quickly approach retirement age. In an effort to bolster our future workforce, the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) developed a program called the Preparing our Workforce (POW) Initiative in which geoscience professionals visit departments to discuss the many diverse career opportunities available in our discipline with geoscience students. These personalized, student-led discussions address the importance of transferrable skills and integrating complementary interests, which serves as the central theme to these discussions. This talk will primarily discuss how to incorporate one’s skills, interests and training to strengthen a geoscience career. Additionally, it will address the program’s structure, implementation, goals and how to become involved.