Alumni story Charlotte Walther

"Just when it’s getting interesting, I have to leave. I’m completely hooked now,” I say as I close my laptop. Time for a meeting about why it is so difficult for young farmers to take over a farm while also making it more sustainable.

I had just been looking into why a subsidy scheme for farmers was recently changed. The next day, I interviewed an employee at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency who processes the subsidy applications. Earlier that week, I also helped add more greenery to the grounds of a care facility to improve residents’ well-being.
So, just an ordinary working week for me as a policy researcher for rural areas at Wageningen Environmental Research."

How it all started

"Sometimes I wonder how I ended up researching agricultural policy. At first, I wanted to study meteorology, but I felt something was missing: the human side. I also wanted to choose a degree that would allow me to contribute to the world around me.

The BSc Environmental Sciences sounded like a good fit. What I really liked about Wageningen was that I didn’t have to specialise straight away. I could start broad and discover what interested me most. When it was time to choose my MSc, the conversation with my study adviser was surprisingly short.

“I think we could make a lot of environmental progress if sustainability can also make financial sense,” I said.

“Then perhaps the management track of Urban Environmental Management would suit you,” my study adviser suggested.

“Good idea,” I thought. Companies make money and have an impact on the environment, but they can also come up with clever ways to work with nature. A few minutes later, I walked out with my decision made."

The lecturer didn’t mention sustainability once

"Then I found myself in a management lecture – and it was quite a culture shock. We talked about efficiency and reorganising companies, but nobody mentioned sustainability. Over time, I realised that I also need to understand how people who didn’t study what I studied think and communicate. Only then can I connect with them and help create change."

Sustainable energy became the main focus of my work

"My MSc thesis focused on energy. Once that sparked my interest, I decided to continue in that direction. In my second job, I had the opportunity to contribute to the energy transition.

After a one-year traineeship at a consultancy firm, I became a sustainability policy officer for a municipality in the Achterhoek region. I assessed plans for solar farms, helped decide whether the municipality should join a regional energy-saving programme and visited companies with the local alderman to see their solar roofs. It was varied and interesting work that gave me the chance to explore many different sides of sustainability and society."

A job also has to fit your life

"Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I realised how much the travelling to the Achterhoek was taking out of me, and we were expecting a baby.
After talking to an acquaintance of a colleague, I had already started to see research as a serious career option. At the municipality, I sometimes missed the opportunity to really dive into a subject.

Then a vacancy came up for a researcher working on rural areas at WUR.

“Close to home and still contributing to a better living environment. And I don’t mind that the job isn’t about energy anymore,” was more or less what I said during my first interview.
And I got the job!"

All those group projects turned out to be useful after all

"As a researcher at Wageningen Research, I work on several projects at the same time. In some ways, it feels a lot like the group projects I did as a student.
It turns out all that practice was useful. It helped me discover how I work best in a team and how I can work effectively with different people. The collaboration and communication skills I developed during my BSc and MSc are now skills I use every day – at the same organisation where I once studied.

It feels like I’ve come full circle."