According to UCLA Today, the Environmental Sciences B.S. degree has exploded to become one of UCLA’s fasted growing disciplines. The major is offered by UCLA’s Institute of the Environment (IoE). In 2006, the inaugural year of the degree, there were ten students majoring in Environment Sciences; next year’s graduating class boasts 230 green graduates. (In 2003 three students minored in the field.)
“Students are more environmentally aware. They’re hearing about the environment in high school, in the news and from the Sierra Club,” said Glen MacDonald, IoE director. “They’re seeing that many companies and the government are focused on it. There are career and entrepreneurship opportunities, and the students want to get in on the ground floor.”
IoE’s academic director, Cully Nordby, says that the university is overwhelmed by the sudden growth of the discipline—”overwhelmed in a good way,” she explains. Nordby later describes the Environmental Sciences major as the place “where science and policy meet.”
Environmental Sciences majors are required to fulfill a year-long practicum in their senior year, a project that enables students to transform theory into practice. One student led an initiative to help California vintners produce affordable organic wine.
While the Environmental Sciences major is popular, it’s certainly not the only option on campus for students interested in contributing to a greener world. The Action Research Teams (ART) works to help university departments address sustainability within their fields. One successful initiative that the one ART group has run through IoE is the Sustainable Living Program. Another group is working to improve landscape conditions during droughts.
The fact that IoE and other campus groups have been successful in influencing other university departments shows how far-reaching this interdisciplinary major has become.
“We’re all here to work together and collaborate,” says Nordby. “We know it will take a multidisciplinary effort to solve the problems this whole planet faces.”
Related Accepted.com Resources:
- MBAs Search for Green Pastures
- Sustainable Development and the MBA
- Beyond Grey Pinsripes: Ranking of MBA Programs
- Public Policy Enters MBA Field
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Read the full article: UCLA Students Green with Environmental Interest
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