Alexa Green

Tell us a bit about your current role

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My current role is mostly focused on research. The research is both government and externally funded, and feeds directly into Scottish Government policy. The other part of my role is helping with the delivery and management of the MSc Environmental Protection and Management. I am the cohort lead, and I’m in charge of cohort building which involves planning events and activities for the students. I’ve also been assisting with teaching on a couple of the courses including ‘Interdisciplinary approaches to the environment’ where I taught a class on psychological approaches to the environment as my undergraduate degree was in psychology and sustainability. I’ve also delivered lectures on the ‘Policy and Planning’ course, as my dissertation was in that research area. In my next class I’m leading the lecture on deliberative democracies, and tying in part of my research.

I think my experience of being a student on the programme has helped me to understand both sides of the coin. I understand what current students may be thinking and feeling, what concepts they may be struggling with, and find ways to help them as much as possible.

The University of Edinburgh are also supporting me through a postgraduate teaching certificate, the postgraduate certificate in academic practice, the PGCap.  It’s been really helpful to have certain language and frames of understanding put into perspective, and find ways to improve as a teacher. Even as a teacher, you’re always learning and always a student. I think we should see people as lifelong learners.

What is the most enjoyable part of your role?

My favourite thing about the research side of my job is how I get to dip my toes into so many different areas. I’m able to be a part of so many different research projects, I’m learning so many different methods, and working with so many different people. Just having this much exposure to what’s out there in terms of research in this field is fascinating. Although we mostly focus on rural Scotland, many concepts can be used to understand other areas and provide useful knowledge that can be contextualised in a wider frame. One of the other things I enjoy is that our group is the secretariat for the cross-party group on Rural Policy, which is essentially, a cross-party group bringing together different MSPs and members of the public to talk about different issues related to Rural Policy. We get to bring in different speakers and focus on issues that are pertinent to the communities we’re working with in parliament. One of the great things is you can see how this engagement directly affects policy. You can see MSP’s engaging in conversations and bringing them into parliament or policy.

What part of your role do you find the most challenging?

One of the things I find most challenging is managing my time, because there are so many different projects and things I’m working on and everything is so exciting. But on the other hand I find it difficult to be able to really dig into one thing as there is so much going on. But, I think this is a bit of a trend in the field of academia. You’re expected to be involved in research, teaching and to do it all at the same time at an extremely high level. Which is difficult to do if you don’t have time to sit down and dedicate time to working on it. Thankfully I have the support of my team who help to ensure we all maintain a good work-life balance.

Did you get into this role right after graduation?

After graduation, I was looking for a job and applying to a few different roles and I decided to speak to my Programme Director, Alistair Hamilton. He mentioned that he’d been speaking with colleagues at SRUC and mentioned that my current line manager was looking for some extra help and had an internship position available. I started off as an intern and then worked my way up from intern, to Research Assistant and now Research Associate.

Do you have any advice for students looking for employment?

One thing I would say is to use your dissertation as an opportunity to explore potential career paths. If you think you’re interested in a particular industry, maybe try to link up with that industry or you know a company in that industry to do your dissertation research with, particularly if you’re thinking of going into academia and research. Pick and focus on a topic that you’re interested in. The other bit of advice generally is to rely on your lecturers and programme directors, and ask them to help and connect you with contacts. You could meet someone who is a guest lecturer or one of your lecturers and if you’re really interested in their work, you can talk to them and ask them if you can meet with them to learn more about what they do or ask if they would be able to connect you with others in the field too. Most of the time, people actually want to help, so don’t be shy. Ask!

My other bit of advice would be to go to different careers events and alumni mixers. Any opportunity where there is a networking event, is an opportunity to connect with other people and other fields that you might be interested in.

Tell us a bit about your background and why you chose Edinburgh

My background is in psychology and sustainability, so I have always been interested in human interactions with the environment. After my undergraduate degree, I was working for a non-profit in the United States, but I missed education and wanted to go back to university. I wanted to pivot a little bit because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay in the NGO space, and I wanted to come to Europe and have a different experience and live in a city that was more sustainable, and a country that has sustainability goals and targets.

I chose Edinburgh because I was looking for Masters programmes, and I knew that Ididn’t want to stay in the U.S. I was looking at programmes in Edinburgh, Sweden and the Netherlands. One of the main reasons I chose Edinburgh was because everyone I spoke to said "Edinburgh is the best city, you should definitely go there", so it was highly recommended to me. I also didn’t want to have to deal with language barriers, and thought it would be easier to integrate into the culture here. One of the other reasons was the proximity to nature. With places like Arthur’s Seat right in the city, Edinburgh provided an opportunity for me to have better access to nature, and a deeper understanding of the environment itself because there is just so much rural space in Scotland. 

I chose EPM because I felt that it was going to give me more of a science background, which in a way it did. Mostly what I got from the programme was an understanding of how to do research and how to communicate research, and work with interdisciplinary teams and people from different cultural backgrounds. The fact that the programme was only one year was a factor too, many of the other programmes I looked at were two or more years. 

What did you enjoy most during your time at Edinburgh?

I was here during Covid-19, but being a student social media representative was a great opportunity for me to share my story, and to see what other people were up to and how they were coping at the time. One thing that really stuck with me during my time as a student was the friendships that I made. The connections that I made with the people in my class were life-saving really, and despite restrictions and how difficult things were, we came together really strongly as a cohort and we checked on each other a lot. We spent time together, because we really are close like a family and as a result of that experience there are a lot of us who ended up staying on in Edinburgh after the programme. We have this little Edifam, as we call it. One of the most important things that came from this experience was the really close friendships that I made with people who are so inspiring and interested in similar things to me, and are very different to the people that I would have been exposed to at home or the people I grew up with.

What was the highlight of your studies?

As well as meeting the Edifam, my dissertation research was also a highlight. Only because now I see how relevant it is to my job, I feel like it was a worthwhile piece of work. Even though at the time I felt as though I didn’t know what I was doing, and that there would be no way I would want to go into a PhD because I can’t be doing this right, I was getting great support and feedback from my supervisor the whole time and I got a really good mark. I think just completing the masters was a highlight as it really improved my self-esteem that I was able to do it and try to change my perspective on making the most of the experience.

Do you have any advice for current students?

No one asks what grade you got on any assignment. No one cares whether I graduated with distinction (at least in my experience). People care less about grades that you got during your masters and care more about the lessons you learned, the concepts you learned, the people you met, the connections you made and whether or not you work well with others. So I think my advice would be to focus on the moment, focus on trying to explore your interests, do you best in any assignments but don’t take lower grades as failure, use them as further opportunities to learn. Also, use this time to figure out what you don’t enjoy too. For example, I thought I wanted to go into consulting, so I took an optional course on impact assessments and I found I didn’t enjoy it. Not everything is for you, focus on trying to find what is for you and what feels right.