As the climate crisis heightens and we tread ever further into the Anthropocene epoch, it becomes imperative environmental educators help recruit young adults to the conservation career force. However, studies show that career literacy education is a complex subject that is often misrepresented in traditional K-12 education. The goal of this project was to create an inclusive and influential curriculum for informal after-school programming for secondary students to supplement the career literacy of conservation professions garnered in the traditional school day. The lesson plans focus on relating conservation professions to our communities and students’ daily lives, as well as the recruitment and inclusion of diverse cultures and peoples. Curation included pedagogical theories supported by academic literature including the use of Science as Identity, Achievement Motivation Theory, Constructivist Theoretical Frameworks, Project and Inquiry-Based Learning, and Cultural-Historical Frameworks. This curriculum also employs knowledge and experiences from conservation professionals of diverse intersectionalities to further help students correlate these professions with their own identities and envision conservation as a feasible career pathway. While creation was focused on the after-school timeframe for students in the midwestern United States, lesson plans are transferable to other educational environments
