Arwen Kozak (Master of Environmental Studies ’25) was working as a physics and math teacher when she enrolled in the MES program three years ago. Her goal was to pivot into the environmental policy space and apply her teaching skills in a new way. “I think to be a good policymaker is to be a good educator,” she says. Now a senior research coordinator at Penn’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, Arwen is combining her MES degree with her experience building community in the classroom to advance the center’s mission.
Though she majored in physics and theatre in college, Arwen shares that environmental studies had been a long-time interest. It wasn’t until she started teaching high school physics and math in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, however, that a career focused on the environment began to take shape in her mind. “I really liked being in the classroom working with real people and thinking about community and how we want to show up in our society,” she explains, “and I realized that environmental policy was really how I thought I should do that.”
Penn’s Master of Environmental Studies was an obvious choice for graduate school. The Ivy League program offers a flexible interdisciplinary curriculum and a concentration in Environmental Policy. Arwen could keep her job teaching across town while commuting to campus. And a big draw for her was the Penn community. “I wanted access to Penn's network of people,” she says, “not only the faculty and students, but also the kinds of guest speakers and visiting scholars that would be available to me on campus.”
Her coursework connected her to instructors across disciplines who were seasoned practitioners as well as scholars. They know what skills students need for environmental careers, Arwen found, and how to help students connect policy negotiations happening in Washington, DC, or on the international stage to practical impacts in local communities. At Penn, Arwen was able to dive into environmental policy and related social sciences while refining the policy-based research skills she would need in the future. “A lot of the courses I took were so project-based that I felt like I was getting a resume boost with every class,” she adds.
Early on, Arwen chose Energy Management and Policy (ENMG) courses, which are offered through the Kleinman Center—the hub of sustainable energy policy innovations and related interdisciplinary course offerings at Penn. Her first ENMG course, Societal Grand Challenges at the Interface of Technology and Policy, helped solidify her commitment to energy policy. And at Kleinman, she found a home on campus where she could continue to learn and grow.
Though she was still teaching during her first two years of study, Arwen was dedicated to pursuing professional development opportunities at Penn outside the classroom. “You want to really lean into that and take advantage of it while you're here,” she advises other students. She attended extracurricular events on energy and policymaking across campus whenever she could. During her first summer, she completed an energy policy internship in South Africa (funded by a Kleinman Center student grant), which would inform her capstone research project. And starting her second year of study, she worked as a part-time student research assistant at the Kleinman Center.
A year later, when she was offered more hours at the center and an expanded role working with visiting scholars and guests, she realized it was time to leave her teaching job behind. “It was a difficult decision and really scary to leave a comfortable career,” she admits, “but the whole reason that I had started this degree—the whole reason I had come to Penn—was to have this career shift happen.” Within a few months, with graduation approaching, her role expanded again when she was offered a full-time staff position.
Arwen’s new role as a senior research coordinator at the Kleinman Center involves supporting visiting scholars, students, and grant recipients, plus potential for engaging further with the community. “Part of what changed in my job description is a commitment to building community engagement, which was really important to me because I love teaching.”
Arwen is currently in the brainstorming phase, thinking about how to further expand Penn’s robust energy policy network. One of her ideas is to bring energy policy to young learners in Philadelphia—something she’s passionate about. “It’s exciting because I feel like I have the opportunity to imagine what our community engagement could look like,” she says. “An important part of my professional story is that I had that time teaching. I think education is a huge part of policy, and what I want my job to be.”
