Penn Environmental Leader Cory Colijn ’06 Provides Career Day Keynote Remarks
Cornelia “Cory” Colijn ’06, Executive Director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, shared her career journey and advice with juniors and seniors in keynote remarks at Career Day on February 20.
Cory opened her remarks with a seven-minute Pecha Kucha presentation (a storytelling format in which a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds per slide), explaining the professional and personal journeys that led her to a career in environmentalism and energy policy. Cory candidly shared how the influence of both of her parents (her father in university academics and her mother running large nonprofit organizations) and her upbringing in the small town of Port Republic just outside of Atlantic City shaped her curiosity of all things nature. Having joined MFS in ninth grade, Cory also credited her parents for making the 2.5-hour round trip commute from her hometown to Moorestown and back every school day. “It was the best decision I made around my education,” she reflected. “And just in case you’re wondering, I don’t think I was ever late to school.”
After graduating from MFS, Cory earned a bachelor’s degree in earth and environmental science and a master’s degree in applied geoscience, both from the University of Pennsylvania. Her first post-graduate career was working for Philadelphia-based nonprofits focused on the ecological restoration of the city’s expansive park system. Cory eventually found herself back at Penn, this time as an administrative director for the school’s Professional Programs in Earth and Environmental Science. In 2014, she was approached by one of her professional mentors to lead a new environmental center at Penn – an opportunity she enthusiastically accepted. Since then, Cory has served as the Executive Director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, where she leads the center’s strategy, manages a team of faculty, staff, and students, administers a multi-million dollar annual research budget, and connects the center’s work to measurable and impactful public policy outcomes.
Cory shared three of her personal guiding mottos, which she encouraged students to apply to their own unique journeys upon graduation:
“Find your North Star:” She emphasized the importance of finding your North Star, which she defined as a guiding principle that motivates you and shapes the direction of your life and career. She noted that while your personal North Star may evolve over time as new opportunities and challenges arise, maintaining a clear sense of purpose and being open to change is crucial. “We are not fixed in time or space,” Cory said. “You are going to wander. Some important doors are absolutely going to open for you on the periphery, but that also means your angle to your North Star is going to change.”
“Find a way to be comfortable with being uncomfortable:” Cory explained that the biggest personal growth often comes from embracing discomfort – not just professionally, but personally, too. As a self-described introvert, Cory shared that she can sometimes feel out of place as a current PhD candidate in her education program with no formal teaching background, or as a geologist working in public policy, and even as a young female making leadership decisions in a room full of older men. “I am a frequent visitor of discomfort, and there was a while where this was a real handicap for me,” she said. “But avoiding that discomfort meant that I made a bunch of decisions not to do things, and that is simply not the way to live your biggest life.”
“Surround yourself with people who make you a better version of yourself:” Cory also stressed that it’s important to not only look to people who support you, but to also find people who challenge you and who have different points of view. She described a recent encounter with a politician who sits on the opposite side of the political spectrum from her, yet shares concern around similar American energy and climate challenges. “I realized about halfway through our conversation that I would benefit from doing a lot less talking, and a lot more listening,” Cory said. “By being open to talking to someone whose ideas are fundamentally different from me, I have better ideas and my convictions in what I believe actually became stronger because I was challenged to defend them to someone on the other side of the ideological spectrum.”
Cory closed her keynote remarks by answering a number of questions from students, and offered parting inspirational words of advice: “Your journey is already, and will continue to be, marked by opportunities and choices. Some will be easy, most hard; and also by challenges, many exciting, probably a few difficult ones; and then by people, some who will be delightful and supportive, and some less so. My story is of a small-town girl with an amazing support system who’s trying to move the needle on climate change at the same time, and still trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.”