Colorado State Announces Veterans Green Jobs Education Initiative
Dec 09 2009
Colorado State University and Veterans Green Jobs announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to create the Veterans Green Jobs Education Initiative at the university. CSU is the first four-year university to partner with Veterans Green Jobs to provide “green” educational opportunities to veterans.
The MOU establishes a formal relationship between CSU and the Denver-based, non-profit organization, Veterans Green Jobs, for the purpose of encouraging and enhancing opportunities for military veterans to attend the university, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The initiative promotes academic disciplines that provide post-educational career opportunities for veterans in the green jobs sector, both in Colorado and nationally.
These disciplines, across four colleges at CSU, would include, but are not limited to: natural resources management, forestry and military lands management, green/sustainable construction, renewable energy technology and sustainable business development.
To achieve the goals of the MOU, the university and Veterans Green Jobs will focus on:
- supporting military veterans attending Colorado State University in achieving their educational and professional goals for the green jobs sector;
- and, developing pathways and programs that will assist and encourage military veterans to attend Colorado State University to undertake undergraduate and graduate level studies in green job related disciplines.
Veterans Green Jobs is a national nonpartisan organization providing returning military veterans with rapid training programs and deployment into meaningful jobs in the new energy economy. Leveraging the investments already made in military personnel, Veterans Green Jobs retools them for a new mission: working on the frontlines here at home to implement energy conservation, renewable energy and environmental restoration.
Partnering with academia and private industry, Veterans Green Jobs training programs have resulted in a skilled workforce currently implementing energy efficiency and weatherization measures as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In 2010, Veterans Green Jobs will launch programs across the United States to train veterans as leaders of market-based initiatives to manage weatherization programs, install solar panels and wind turbines, rebuild and retrofit homes, and replant and restore both urban and wildland environments.
For more information about Veterans Green Jobs, visit http://veteransgreenjobs.org/ or contact Kirsten Maynard, (415) 350-4147, kirsten@veteransgreenjobs.org.
