Juniper Golf Course in Redmond hosted a national environmental and innovation focused educational event for Redmond High School students on Nov. 8-9.

The event, dubbed First Green, was put on by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. It taught local high school students about the variety of career opportunities in the golf industry.

The association said the course provides students with hands-on learning opportunities to gain knowledge in an outdoor settling.

“(First Green) is an innovative environmental education outreach program that uses a golf course as a learning map. And we focus on a STEM program and hands on learning, and the teachers are pretty excited about their students,” said Gary Ingram, the director of environmental management at CourseCo Inc., a golf course management company in Petaluma, Calif.

On Nov. 8-9, the program brought 66 high schoolers out for a field trip to city-owned Juniper Golf Course for an interactive and engaging experience learning about the different career paths within the golf industry.

Some of the topics covered during the event included turf species on golf courses, irrigation, water, soils, maintenance equipment and golf activity.

“The thing that is amazing to me is that once they realize that this industry is a $101 billion industry — it is not just playing golf — it is a $101 billion industry,” said Ingram. “There are 165 million job opportunities and the employees make $80 billion and when they hear that, they think ‘Oh wow, there’s a lot of opportunities.’”

Some of the jobs in the industry span from food and beverage to environmental management, sales and marketing, Ingram said. The golf industry also includes careers in tech and finances, Ingram said.

“Once they hear there is much more than just the game of golf in the golf industry, they get excited,” Ingram said.