Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
AC-3: Undergraduate Program

The B.S. in Environmental Science (ENVSC) employs the principles, processes, and methodologies of the life and physical sciences to develop an integrated understanding of the environment and the effects associated with human use of the Earth's natural resources. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams in a capstone course and in environmental research/internship projects attuned to Great Lakes, water resources, and energy resources issues. Students choosing the Environmental Field Science option will obtain additional strengths in field biology, geographic information systems, and environmental geoscience and field methods. Those choosing the Environmental Lab Science option will obtain additional strengths in analytical chemistry and environmental geochemistry. The curriculum permits additional specialization in allied areas through completion of minors in chemistry, biology, or statistics.

Science’s interdisciplinary curriculum is designed for students whose educational and career goals are not immediately met by one of the traditional majors in the sciences, and it might be the right fit for you if you’re looking for a high degree of flexibility in your studies. The General Science option allows you, in consultation with your faculty adviser, to frame your studies to meet diverse career goals rooted in science. Students who choose this option use their electives to broaden their career horizon: science journalism, public policy and politics, business, or technical sales are just a few possibilities.

The Intercollege Minor in Sustainability Leadership has been designed for students who wish to promote environmental, social, and economic sustainability in their personal and professional lives. Administered by a University-wide faculty committee, the program provides an opportunity for students in any academic major to develop key competencies that will be the foundation for their growth as sustainability leaders in their civic and professional endeavors. Students cultivate these sustainability leadership competencies in the context of thematic tracks that allow them to focus on particular topics within sustainability studies. The competencies cut across all thematic tracks so that all students in the minor will develop capabilities in: systems thinking application of sustainability concepts, metrics and analysis ethics self-knowledge and leadership change agency collaboration While these competencies are developed in the context of a specific thematic track, they are transferrable to numerous settings and problems, and graduates of the Sustainability Leadership program will be able to apply them to ethical, social, business and civic issues that they encounter after leaving the University.

Administered by a program faculty drawn from across the University, the Intercollege Minor in Civic and Community Engagement is appropriate to undergraduate students seeking to apply domains of knowledge from their majors or General Education programs to issues of consequence beyond the classroom. In the minor students integrate democratic, professional, and creative development. In particular, the minor serves to encourage, recognize, and systematize student participation in public service or problem-based fieldwork and research that: is substantial, sustained, and includes structured opportunities for student reflection and critical assessment; and is integrated with and supported by traditional, classroom-based course work. Specifically, the minor consists of a balanced program of fieldwork experience and supporting course work that is selected with the advice and consent of a minor adviser and approved on behalf of the minor by a program faculty. Fieldwork experiences are selected from a list of eligible courses (or approved comparable alternatives), and supporting course work includes a conceptual foundations course that provides students with a critical orientation to contemporary issues and themes in public scholarship. The minor culminates with an approved capstone project, which may be a significant paper, or annotated portfolio, or other demonstration of substantial assessment and integration of the minor experience and the broader issue of application of academic theory and practice in the civic community.