Bachelor [Environmental Studies] From Wellesley College

The Environmental Studies program brings together students and faculty with a wide range of interests and disciplinary backgrounds at Wellesley. The program hosts special events for the campus community, including guest speakers, nature walks, and faculty lectures. The program also works closely with student organizations and the college administration to promote sustainability on campus. Alumnae of the program have pursued work in policy, science, education, journalism, and other fields related to the environment.

Environmental studies is an interdisciplinary program at Wellesley College. It trains students to address pressing issues, such as the biodiversity crisis, the collapse of oceanic fisheries, toxic waste disposal, global climate change, green building design, and the inequities and causes of environmental degradation. Through course work, field trips, internships, and directed research, students develop the knowledge and skills needed to study, understand, and address contemporary environmental challenges at the local, national, and international level.

Environmental Studies is a particular way of thinking, conducting research, and posing questions. We recognize that knowledge of societies, the environment, and the complex and multifaceted relationship they share, emerges from a wide range of disciplines, including the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. An environmental studies major or minor aims to provide students with critical skills that will allow them to engage current environmental issues and prepare to recognize future ones.

Central to this goal is helping students develop independent critical thinking, problem framing, and problem solving skills across disciplines and cultures with which they can diagnose and prioritize a wide range of environmental issues, from the local to the international, from the most pressing to the most long-term. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of environmental issues, the program draws upon courses from multiple departments. Each student will choose electives in consultation with her advisor to help focus her studies on an issue or approach that interests her.