Professional Skills Modules
The Professional Skills Modules (PSMs) provide students with opportunities to strengthen their proficiency in core areas considered essential to all professionals, including those focused on environmental management.
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We have designed a suite of intensive, interactive workshops that are designed to help students thrive in their work at YSE and in their future careers. The workshops are held on Fridays throughout the year and usually run from 9am until 2pm. Each workshop is open to all YSE students, although if space is limited, MEM students will be given preference, as they are required to take at least four of the eight workshops prior to graduation.
Remember that all MEM students must complete at least four different PSMs during your time at YSE in order to graduate. Dual degree students must complete three PSMs, and MEM5 students must complete two PSMs. YSE students who are not MEMs are strongly encouraged and very welcome to join PSMs of your choice, but it’s not required. Remember: Practical AI for the Environment is not a PSM, so completing it will not count against your MEM PSM graduation requirement. It may be added as a PSM in the future.
Registration Process
Registration for PSMs proceeds in two rounds as described below.
Round One
August 29 through September 11
For the Class of 2025: 2nd year students
Step One: If you are an MEM, go to your Degree Audit and remind yourself about how many PSMs you have already taken, and which ones they were.
Step Two: Sign up for the number and subjects you need to fulfill your minimum graduation requirement using the Yale Connect registration link for each PSM below.
Step Three: Select the ones you want and need to fulfill your minimum, but no more than that during this round. Please don’t sign up for anything you don’t seriously plan to attend. Consider whatever knowledge you have of your class and field trip schedule.
Step Four: If you are not an MEM, and would like to attend one or more PSMs, feel invited to sign up for one in the fall and one in the spring during this round.
For the Class of 2026: 1st year students
Step One: Review the list of PSMs for the fall and spring semester below. A brief description is included in the YaleConnect registration links for each one.
Step Two: Whether you are an MEM or a different degree, register for only one Fall Semester PSM and only one Spring Semester PSM during this round. Use the YaleConnect registration link under each PSM below.
Round Two
September 18 through end of the academic year.
After everyone has had a chance to select their top preferences and graduation needs, we will make all PSMs available for open registration in YaleConnect, subject to space limitations. A waiting list will automatically form once the space limitation is reached.
2024-2025 PSM Schedule
Fall Semester
- Friday, September 13:
Environmental Career Strategies
Instructor: Kevin Doyle, YSE
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273418 - Friday, September 20:
Practical AI for Environmental Professionals
(NOT for PSM credit)
Instructor: Andis Arietta
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273675 - Friday, September 27:
Verbal Communications
Instructors: Executive Voice Team
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 36 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273423 - Friday, October 25:
Visual Communication of Data
Jennifer Marlon, Simon Queenborough, and team, YSE
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273425 - Friday, November 15:
Cultural Competence for the Workplace
Instructors: Rob Javonillo and Chenee Gallaher, YSE
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64, — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273426 - Friday, December 6:
Introduction to Project Management
Instructors: Habitus, Inc.
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273428
Spring Semester
- Friday, January 17:
Stakeholder Engagement
Instructor: Consensus Building Institute
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273752 - Friday, January 31:
Facilitation
Instructor: Consensus Building Institute
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273754 - Friday, February 7:
Negotiation
Instructor: Consensus Building Institute
8:30 am - 2:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273756 - Friday, February 14:
Skills for Change Agents
Instructor: Peter Boyd, YSE
8:30 am - 2;30 pm , Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273775 - Friday, March 28:
Fundraising Skills for Environmental Professionals
Instructor: TBA
1:00-5:30 pm, Bowers Auditorium,
Attendee limit: 64 — https://cglink.me/2dA/r2273760
Professional Skills Module Topics & Objectives
1. Verbal Communication
This workshop is designed to teach students how to give clear and compelling oral presentations.. Facilitators introduce participants to best practices and useful frameworks, and then give students the chance to practice, providing iterative feedback on individual presentations.
2. Visual Communication
Through the Visual Communication workshop, students learn basic graphic design principles, apply them in interactive exercises, and then participate in a group critique. They become familiar with how to organize and present information in a way that draws the eye to key elements, and explore the connection between form and content.
3. Negotiation
This module provides an introduction to general negotiation topics through a variety of exercises. Content includes the concept of negotiation, strategies for preparing to negotiate, positions/interests, best alternatives to negotiated agreements and more.
4. Cultural Competence
The goals of this workshop are to cultivate an understanding of why cultural competence across differences – including those based on experience, expertise, values and other factors – is important, and to understand how each of us can work across differences and develop skills for interrupting bias effectively in the workplace.
5. Fundraising
This workshop uses a mix of lectures, discussions, and role-plays to demystify the fundraising process and share key approaches for attracting people to invest in your work. Students leave with an understanding of how to develop and steward relationships with funders, how to assess funding landscapes, and how to make funding asks.
6. Project Management
Rather than review an existing guide to project management, this workshop explores a number of key questions that practitioners use when tackling and managing environmental challenges. The instructors draw examples and lessons learned from their work across scales, sectors, cultures and continents, as well as from experiences of workshop participants.
7. Stakeholder Engagement
This module introduces students to using stakeholder engagement processes, beginning with the conceptual basics: why, how, when and what form of engagement to use. They then learn the practical steps of how to design, govern, fund, manage, evaluate and end a successful stakeholder process.
8. Meeting facilitation
This session provides an overview of key strategies and best practices to help participants make the most of their time with project partners and colleagues. It focuses on how to design and manage well-run, collaborative meetings to accomplish shared goals.
Additional professional skills development opportunities are integrated throughout YSE courses and trainings. Each PSM topic represents a rich topic of study and practice, and there are often chances for more depth in each topic at Yale and beyond.