Academic Overview

  • Campus Sustainability
  • Academics
  • Overview

Inquiry and learning associated with environment and sustainability can be found across the institution in an array of engaging programmatic options.

Academics

Environmental Studies Major and Concentration

The environmental studies department and its associated faculty provide a significant number of courses and coherent major/concentration experiences. Opportunities to interrogate sustainability issues and strategies abound within the intended learning outcomes for the environmental studies degree. Examples of specific courses include: Sustainable Development (EnvSt 235), Integration and Application in Environmental Studies (EnvSt 237), Environmental Sustainability in Japan (ASES 277), and Topics in Global Environmental Politics (ESPS 201).

Environmental Studies Major – trains students in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the relationships between humans and the environment. Students orient their studies around one of three areas of emphasis.

    • Arts & Humanities
    • Natural Sciences
    • Social Sciences

Environmental Studies Concentration – a flexible course of study that can be integrated with any major on campus. Students may combine environment-focused upper-level courses within their own discipline with a set of courses focused on the environment, including two integrative courses in the Environmental Studies department.

OLECORE / Conversation Programs (general education)
Under the general education umbrella, students engage questions of sustainability in a variety of offerings in the first year experience. Stand alone first year seminar or writing & rhetoric courses have themes, such as “Living Well in Climate Change.” In addition, throughout one’s St. Olaf education students can access these themes within the required core courses addressing Global Histories & Societies, Religion, Faith and Values, Natural Science, and Social Science.

The first year Environmental Conversations Program enables students to explore three consecutive courses that tackle “Life in the Anthropocene,” “Big Data and Bigger Challenges,” and “Imagineering Earth’s Future.”
ACADEMIC CIVIC ENGAGEMENT CLASSES
Academic civic engagement (ACE) is applying classroom learning within a community context for the common good. Often, this work entails close collaboration with local and global community partners. Many St. Olaf courses with an environmental studies focus include an ACE component. For instance, Environmental Studies 237, which is required for both majors and concentrators, always includes a community engagement project.
Study Away Programs
The Smith Center for Global Engagement supports a wide variety of study abroad programs with an environmental or sustainability focus. There are programs available that fall under one or more of the three academic emphases (Arts & Humanities, Natural Science, and Social Science), where students can dive into environmental and sustainability research and experiential learning specific to their desired area of study.
  • Examples of semester study away with environment & sustainability focus
    • Environmental Science in Australia & New Zealand
    • DISabroad in Copenhagen
  • Examples of January study away with environment & sustainability focus
    • ART 261  O’Keeffe’s Art and New Mexico
    • ASES 277 Environmental Sustainability in Japan
    • BIO 253  Water in Morocco
    • BIO 287  Island Biology in the Bahamas
    • ENVST 242  Contemplative Desert Ecologies
    • SPAN 240 Puerto Rican Politics & Environment

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