Keeping A Watch On The World's Environment
by Alina Gonzalez '08
As a young girl, Hilary French found herself fascinated by the environment.
Fortunately for our world, that interest continued through high school,
Dartmouth, and deep into her professional life.
This year she celebrates a two-decade tenure-ship with Worldwatch—a research
institute dedicated to achieving an environmentally sustainable society.
Hilary’s path to the realization of her childhood dreams began at home in
Andover, Massachusetts where her father owned a sporting goods store. She and
her family consistently “did a lot of outdoor activities like biking and cross
country skiing.” When the time came for Hilary to fill out college
applications, Dartmouth stood out as the ideal place to pursue her
passions.
“I knew I wanted a college that was near the outdoors, a place where I could
continue to ski competitively, and a college that was academically challenging,
and Dartmouth fit the mold.”
Once at Dartmouth, Hilary says she was “pleasantly surprised” to find that
two of her greatest interests—environmental studies and international
relations— could be studied hand in hand.
“I was in college in the mid ‘80’s when environmental issues were just
becoming international issues. It wasn’t immediately obvious to people that the
two topics were connected, but at Dartmouth, I learned about international
environmental issues through the Environmental Studies Department,” she
says.
In fact, it was during one of her senior year classes that Hilary met the
man behind the non-profit institution where she has worked for twenty
years.
"One of the textbooks we used was Worldwatch's State of the World Report,
and for a guest lecture, the founder and President of Worldwatch, Lester Brown,
addressed our class. It was my senior year and I was looking for jobs, so I
made contact with him and that’s how I eventually ended up at Worldwatch,” she
says.
But even before her senior year, Hilary made the most of Dartmouth’s student
resources. In the summer after her junior year, Hilary landed an internship
with the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva through
the Dickey Foundation Endowment.
“The Dickey Foundation was quite encouraging and allowed people to work with
the United Nations while providing funding,” she says. It was in Geneva that
Hilary discovered the excitement, rewards and challenges that came with U.N.
work.
“I believe in the concept behind the UN: if we are going to have peace in
this world, it is important to get countries to work together on topics that
bridge political divides, like children and the environment,” she says.
An added benefit became the stunning U.N. venue itself, she said. “I loved
Geneva because of the outdoors: There were beautiful mountains and lakes,
and I would go on hikes with the UN hiking club.”
Hilary’s experience so captivated her that she interned with the United
Nations again one year later. “My senior year, recruiters for the United
Nations Development Program came to campus through the Dickey Foundation, and I
had an interview and got the internship,” she says.
This time, the internship was in the capital of the Ivory Coast in West
Africa. “It was quite the contrast,” she says. “It was my second time in Africa
because I had had the opportunity to go to a conference in Africa while I was
in Geneva, and that gave me the interest to go back.”
“It was hard because I was supposed to be working in French, and my French
wasn’t too great, so I struggled during meetings. But I got the exposure and
experience that I was looking for,” she says.
After the internship ended, Hilary moved to Washington, D.C. to search for
jobs in the environmental arena. She worked briefly for an organization that
funded entrepreneurs in developing sectors, but soon landed a position with the
organization she has since been with for twenty years: Worldwatch.
“I’ve done a lot of different things for Worldwatch over that period of
time,” she says. “It’s unique in that there are no barriers to advancing
throughout the program in terms of graduate degrees. I just continued to move
up through the ranks to the point that I was doing my own research and
writing,” she says.
Hilary started out at Worldwatch as a research assistant, a job that she
credits Dartmouth with as the college gave her extensive, substantive research
experience.
“The thesis I wrote my senior year at Dartmouth was helpful in getting the
job because Worldwatch is a research institute so there is a lot of research
and writing involved, similar to the process of thesis writing. When Worldwatch
asked me for a writing sample, I used my senior thesis, they read the whole
thing, and I convinced them I was able to do the same kind of research and
writing for them,” she says.
Ten years after her first day at Worldwatch, Hilary decided to take one year
off to receive her Masters Degree at the Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy. She then returned to Worldwatch and spent several years in
management, including time as the Vice President of Research; now she is the
Senior Advisor for Programs.
Her tasks include writing speeches, giving lectures, and, work that is “not
that different from what Dartmouth students do:” research and writing.
Currently, her research centers on the role of international institutions in
environmental protection and the way in which globalization affects
environmental issues.
These days, Hilary reflects on how her work has come full circle: she is
writing a chapter on carbon markets for a State of the World Report—the very
textbook that brought Worldwatch’s founder to Hilary’s senior year classroom at
Dartmouth and first introduced her to the organization.
Still, Worldwatch stands as only one of Hilary’s jobs.
She also has been named a special advisor to the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP). “Ever since those days when I did my internships at Dartmouth,
I was interested in the UN and eventually got the opportunity to work for them
directly.”
Hilary’s work for the UN includes advising the organization on environmental
policy issues, and trying to connect UNEP with non-governmental organizations
in ways that would be “mutually useful.” As with Worldwatch, Hilary says she is
energized by her work with the U.N.
Hilary’s professional odyssey since her Big Green days is shining proof that
it is possible to make a career out of what you love.
“You’re going to be spending a lot of time working, so you might as well do
what you enjoy.”
But she acknowledges that finding what you love can be a process in and of
itself.
“I’m unusual in that I’ve stayed with one organization as long as I have,
but many people experiment,” she says. “It’s not like suddenly you have
the magic answer. It can be something you struggle with throughout your career
in various ways. Students should realize that they don’t need to feel pressure
to have it all figured out because there are opportunities to change course.
It’s a combination of thinking about what you are good at doing and where you
can do that,” she says.
What the next twenty years have in store for Hilary remains unknown. Perhaps
one day soon she will be the guest lecturer who introduces a new Dartmouth
student to the world of Worldwatch. A professional full circle, indeed.
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