I applaud our safety, health, and environmental (SH&E) students on completion of a productive academic year and congratulate all those graduating.

 

The knowledge and skills learned in your safety degree program have given you the ability to be an effective safety professional. Safety is an interdisciplinary profession with diverse and complex issues. Safety professionals deal with technical issues such as robotics, fire protection, ergonomics, risk analysis, and hazardous materials. This makes our profession a challenging career, but at the same time this diversity and complexity makes it an extremely rewarding career.

 

Knowledge is a fundamental component of a well-rounded safety professional. Technical knowledge of safety topics, but also people skills, are crucial to a safety professional's effectiveness. Safety professionals must work hand in hand with both top management and hourly workers. Often the key to an effective safety process is helping people make a decision and then helping those individuals (management or workers) follow through with their decision. This will involve inspiring and motivating these folks. Your safety education has introduced you to the necessary managerial, legal, and behavioral skills aspects of safety so you can have a long and successful career.

 

Certification attests to what you have learned, signifies your ability to solve problems and think logically, and demonstrates your commitment to continue learning as business, technology, and policy change. Accredited, valued certifications like the Certified Safety Professional® (CSP®) signify years of valuable work experience. Certifications, or designations like the Graduate Safety Practitioner® (GSP®), provide new safety professionals with a sense of self-assurance so they can begin their careers confident that they are well prepared to meet its challenges. Your colleagues in the safety field will recognize these credentials and your corresponding abilities, and employers often rely on certification to ensure they have the best qualified safety professionals for their organization.

 

We must also recognize that the safety function is too large for a single individual. We must rely on each other, and belonging to a local safety professional organization helps provide this critical connection. Build your networks and join associations that provide opportunities to share new ideas, advance your career, mentor, and contribute to the advancement of the safety profession. In my experience, safety professionals are more than willing to share their knowledge and expertise to help others.

 

As you prepare to become tomorrow's safety professionals, remember these values. Never stop learning. Celebrate what you have accomplished, and what you will accomplish, today.

Klint Cardinal always knew he wanted to help people live healthy lives. "Even as a kid when I wanted to be a doctor, it was to help people," he says. Cardinal intended pursue a career as a surgeon when he enrolled at Utah State University, but a workplace incident changed his life.

 

"I had been working at the only grocery store in my hometown for about three years, ever since I was legally able to work," Cardinal recalls. "Shortly after I turned eighteen there was an opening in the meat department, and wanting to avoid the Southern Nevada heat, I couldn't have been more excited to fill it." About two weeks into the position, spent primarily cleaning and maintaining the department, he was asked to help out cutting a rack of ribeye with one of the saws. "I had never been trained to use this saw, I only knew how to take it apart and clean it out."

 

"After I trimmed the bones off the edges, I went to adjust a plate on the saw that determines how thick the steaks are cut," Cardinal says. "This plate caught on a rusty guiderail and slammed my left hand down into the blade. I amputated my left thumb, cut through all of the first tarsal bones on all four fingers, and almost lost every finger on my left hand."

 

Cardinal was airlifted to a hospital in Las Vegas, where doctors were able to reattach his thumb, though with two of his knuckles now fused he found himself no longer capable of pursuing his dream of becoming a surgeon.

 

Unsure of his future and struggling to stay motivated, Cardinal started to reach out to members of his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, for support. "That was the best decision I have ever made, because that's where I met John Flores, the senior lecturer and CIH who taught about half of my industrial hygiene program."

 

Industrial Hygiene became a new passion for Cardinal. "It was a tangible, right here, right now way to help people," he explains. "I have the opportunity to prevent people from even having to go see a doctor later in their life."

 

"Every day, I know that changing my major to join the industrial hygiene program here at Utah State was the right decision for me," wrote Cardinal in his scholarship application. "I plan on sitting for the CSP and the CIH and already have hundreds of hours of professional trainings. I want to make sure that people retire healthy, that they don't lose hearing so they can hear their grandkids. I want to make sure that something I do in my career changes a life for the better. That is why I chose to join the industrial hygiene program at USU, because I want to help people."

Young people desire careers that are both personally and professionally rewarding, and the field of SH&E practice offers them exactly those opportunities.

 

Safety offers financially secure positions with great opportunity for growth. According to our 2018 SH&E Industry Salary Survey, the median salary for those not yet holding certification and in their first five years of practice is above the national average, at $66,500 per year. Certified safety practitioners can receive a great deal more, earning a median salary of $70,000 annually when in the first five years of practice and $100,000 per year overall.

 

Perhaps the greatest reward is found in the people-focused mission of safety practice. This is expressed well in the videos from our #ChooseSafety Video Contest winners and honorable mentions.

BCSP offers several complimentary resources as part of the #ChooseSafety campaign, provides the opportunity to request BCSP Ambassadors as speakers, and offers promotional materials for QAPs.

 

A youth-focused #ChooseSafety video and pre-made Powerpoint presentations on careers in safety and safety certification can be found on the Presentations and Outreach webpage. On this page, the BCSP Display and Literature Request Form can also be used to request the Explore Careers in Safety brochure and poster.

 

A BCSP Ambassador may also be requested to promote safety as a career at conferences, college campuses, and a variety of other official events where having an experienced, knowledgeable safety professional would benefit students.

 

GSP QAPs, in addition to requesting brochures and posters that highlight the benefits of enrolling in their programs, may consider requesting use of the GSP logo to emphasize their program's benefiting students with the designation, providing graduates additional recognition for their level of preparation for professional safety practice and demonstrating their dedication to being on the path to the CSP.

 

You can make safety a profession young people aspire to join.