Environmental Science & Sustainability
Interdisciplinary Studies
Why Major in Environmental Science and Sustainability at Allegheny College
As an Environmental Science and Sustainability student, you’ll explore the natural world and the humans who call it home. You’ll gain insights and abilities to make the world more environmentally sound, equitable, just, and sustainable. You won’t just study the environment — you’ll improve it.
Unusual Combinations
Students often combine Environmental Science & Sustainability with:
Division
- Interdisciplinary Studies
Program Type
- Major
Number of Credits
60 for major
Where Environmental Science and Sustainability Alumni Work Today
Senior Research Associate
University of Idaho in the Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology, and Nematology
Paige Hickman ’17
Plastic Pollution Consultant
The World Bank
Zoie Diana ’14
Research Technician
Pennsylvania State University
Bella Petitta ’21
The professors have an amazing breadth of knowledge about environmental topics. Each professor has a different area of expertise, but it is great how they can combine their knowledge to give their students a very well-rounded education.
Your Four-Year Journey
Year 1: Understanding
In your first year you will take Introduction to Environmental Science and discover that, at the college level, ESS is far more interdisciplinary than AP Environmental Science. The class covers agriculture, conservation, energy, and climate change but also teaches you to use art, psychology, ethics, politics, and economics to complement what you know about science. Life Cycle Analysis and patterns of consumption take center stage. Assignments include providing solutions to environmental challenges on campus and in the community.
Year 2: New Approaches
This is the year that ESS classes enhance your ability to think, read, speak, and write critically (ENVSC 270) and engage methods used by ESS professionals to solve environmental problems (ENVSC 210). You will begin to explore classes and internships to complement your ESS classes. Approximately one-half of classes for the ESS major are electives students choose after consulting with their faculty advisors.
Year 3: Delving Deeper
Year three is when you become an ESS professional. The Junior Seminar in Sustainable Development (ES 585) comes together with study abroad, internships, research opportunities, and classes from around the College and around the world as you develop into a global thinker and actor.
Year 4: The Comp
Time to select the project you care most about to spend a year on it with your faculty advisor. Almost every student reports back that their ESS Senior Comp was the most satisfying thing they did at Allegheny College. You can even show your Comp to prospective employers!
Research and Internships
We’ll set the stage for your success through hands-on opportunities. You’ll acquire the skills necessary to positively impact both the natural world and the humans who call it home.
Our environmental science and sustainability students expand their skills through internships, research with faculty, community engagement, study away, and more.
Allegheny’s Bousson Environmental Research Reserve spans 283 acres of woodlands, ponds, streams, wetlands, and native wildlife — presenting rich opportunities for student-faculty research.
Our students also study in the field at many other spots near campus, including:
- Allegheny National Forest
- Erie Wildlife Refuge
- Geneva wetlands
- Presque Isle and Pymatuning State Parks
- Tamarack Lake
- Woodcock Creek Lake
Allegheny’s center engages in strategic conservation activities and trains students to become future watershed stewards. Faculty and students work together in the field with the goal to protect, restore, and enhance our land and water resources for future generations in the upper Allegheny River basin, focusing on the French Creek Watershed, one of the most biologically diverse streams east of the Mississippi River.
Creek Connections has forged an effective partnership between Allegheny College and regional K-12 schools to turn waterways in Northwest Pennsylvania, Southwest New York, and the Pittsburgh area into outdoor environmental laboratories. Emphasizing a hands-on, inquiry based investigation of local waterways, this project annually involves over 40 different secondary schools and the classes of 50 teachers.
Allegheny offers sponsored study-away programs in more than 15 countries across the world. Many ESS students travel to Israel and Costa Rica as part of off-campus study programs.
Faculty and Staff
Assistant Professor
Ph.D. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science; M.S., Frostburg State University; B.S., Juniata College
Email: kpearce@allegheny.edu
Phone: 814-332-2164
Professor
Ph.D., M.A., University of New Hampshire; B.A. University of Northern Colorado
Email: tbensel@allegheny.edu
Phone: 814-332-2309
Featured News
Academic Excellence: Paving the Way for Bright Futures
When talking with alumni about their Allegheny experience, whether they graduated in 1974 or 2024, one thing always stands out – the connection our alumni have with faculty. Our College has a rich legacy of faculty who go above and beyond in their interactions with students, serving as teachers, mentors, facilitators, career connectors, and more.
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Study the astonishing variety, and complexity, of living things on Earth.
Address:
520 North Main Street
Meadville, PA 16335
Contact:
814-332-4351
info@allegheny.edu
admissions@allegheny.edu
