Mike Goodman

Mighty Oak Monday: Mike Goodman

04/03/2023

Major: Master’s in Sustainable Energy
Hometown: Maplewood, New Jersey
Class of ’23

An ACL tear disrupted Mike Goodman’s plan to complete a coveted Outward Bound internship during his college years. Instead, he ended up at a conference on environmental education where he discovered wilderness therapy. A lunch and interview landed him the role. Upon graduation and reconstructive surgery, Mike converted his Subaru Outback into a temporary home and set off for the Rocky Mountains.

He spent the next three years in Utah, working for wilderness therapy programs helping adolescents and those with behavioral and substance abuse disorders find their place in the world. 

“I was a Boy Scout growing up, so I was always connected to nature,” Goodman said. “But wilderness therapy helped me translate my knowledge into interpersonal skills that helped people heal.”

Mike would spend weeks with people out in the wilderness working with participants on developing skills such as starting campfires and making backpacks out of latched sticks. It challenged participants to modify their behavior to adapt to life’s challenges, with real-life consequences being the only judge of the person’s success or failure.

“We employed a natural consequences model,” Goodman said. “We would give them all the tools and knowledge to set up shelter, but if they didn’t do it, they would get wet.”

Seeing the consequences unfold for the participants brought the climate fight to a personal level Goodman hadn’t experienced growing up in New Jersey. He realized that like in the program, the real-life consequences of failing to address climate change would be severe.

After the pandemic necessitated a move to Florida to be with his parents, Goodman couldn’t stop thinking about his wilderness experiences and felt compelled to pursue a new path that would enable him to protect the environment. He started exploring graduate programs and enrolled at ESF in the fall of 2021.

“Issues like water shortages, are going to become more prevalent,” he said. “I want to address the problems before we see the most severe consequences.”

Goodman will complete his graduate studies in May and wants to find a career in the federal government, helpign to solve national environmental issues. 

Learn more about ESF’s Sustainable Energy master’s degree program.