Environmental Studies

The World is at Your Feet

Grab your hiking boots, waterproof notebook and headlamp and get ready for a unique, student-driven learning experience that will help you make a difference in the world.

Learn Where You Live, Live What You Learn

Gain a solid understanding of environmental issues, policies and principles with a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental studies. Take advantage of research opportunities in the region's many lakes and rivers, forests and mountain ranges, or walk outside of your residence hall to the campus pond, fields, maple sugar house, permaculture garden and tree nursery, or 86-acre certified tree farm. Combine your classroom and laboratory learning with field studies courses in the Colorado River basin, the desert Southwest, the island community of Martha’s Vineyard or the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Pair your passion for the environment with knowledge and skills employers seek by collaborating with peers, faculty and environmental experts on sustainability initiatives and research projects. Partner with classmates to conduct in-depth field work and extended site visits during a team-driven, comprehensive community-based research project. Develop your individual research skills with an independent research project and demonstrate the depth and wealth of your knowledge with a senior Capstone project.

Essential skills developed on campus in the water-quality and ecology laboratories, featuring geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS), will help you move from college into a variety of job possibilities including conservationist, educator, lobbyist, naturalist, environmental planner, sustainability adviser, land protection specialist, policy analyst or trail crew leader. Or, continue your studies in environmental law or any number of graduate fields.

Thinking About Doing a Minor Too?

This major pairs especially well with the Nutrition & Food Studies Minor.

Walking Our Talk

Environmental stewardship is practiced every day on the Colby-Sawyer campus. You can see it in the spinning blades of the wind turbine, as the solar arrays soak up the sun, on the locally sourced dining menu, and through our affiliations with organizations committed to environmental advocacy. Read more about the student-developed climate commitment that pledges the campus to carbon neutrality by 2050.