ChooseWhy Choose This Program?
Why Study Environmental Studies at Goucher?
Goucher’s Environmental Studies Program is designed to encourage thinking across disciplinary boundaries in order to prepare students for meaningful engagement with central environmental questions and challenges facing current and future generations. The program offers students the opportunity to major or minor in a program that bridges social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences. After completing a series of core courses in various disciplines, environmental studies majors must choose either the environment and society concentration or the environmental science concentration to complete remaining coursework.
LearnWhat Will You Learn?
What Will You Learn?
As a field environmental studies seeks to understand the interrelationships of natural phenomena and social structures, systems, and institutions that govern society. To do so, it must engage in the scholarship of particular disciplines, as well as in the scholarship of integration. Environmental studies students take courses grounded in critical social theory, such as Political Ecology and Environmental Justice, just as they also engage with economic theories of the environment, and physical and biological sciences. Environmental studies courses encourage students to think critically about pressing environmental problems, while also advocating for political and social change. Learn More
DoWhat Will You Do?
What Will You Do?
Goucher environmental studies majors address environmental problems at a local level, including in the City of Baltimore, as well as on a global scale. To do so, many students conduct internships with organizations such as Food & Water Watch, Black Yield Institute, and the National Aquarium. Moreover, students often choose to study abroad with the semester-long program at the Monteverde Institute in Costa Rica, or with the three-week intensive course abroad Spanish and Environmental Studies in Ecuador and the Galápagos.
Course Curriculum
Faculty
Major & Minor Program Chair
Germán Mora, Professor of Environmental Studies: Biogeochemistry, climate change, unequal distribution
of environmental services
Full-Time & Half-Time Faculty
Aaron Chesler, Visiting Assistant Professor: Paleoclimate, climate change, glaciology
Peggy Eppig, Lecturer in Environmental Studies: Environmental history and sustainable agriculture
Aaron Chesler, Visiting Lecturer: Paleoclimate, climate change, glaciology
Anna Jozwick, Assistant Professor of Biology: Microbiology and symbiosis
Cynthia Kicklighter, Professor of Biology: Ecology and marine biology
Akana Noto, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
Jennifer da Rosa, Director of MA in Environmental Sustainability & Management, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Gina Shamshak, Associate Professor of Economics: Applied microeconomics, environmental and natural resource economics
Study Abroad
By choosing three-week intensive courses led by Goucher faculty or semester programs suited to their academic plans, environmental studies students gain a global perspective that enhances their course of study. The environmental studies program study-abroad courses are:
GOUCHER SEMESTER-ABROAD PROGRAM AT THE MONTEVERDE INSTITUTE IN COSTA RICA
BIO 243. FIELD METHODS IN TROPICAL ECOLOGY (4)
Targeting natural/biological science majors, this course will explore topics of tropical
ecology (biodiversity, cloud forest ecosystems, and others in greater depth, with
emphasis placed on learning research methodologies that can be used in field based
or laboratory research).
BIO 244. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY (4) (GEN. ED. #11)
Students examine and analyze concepts of sustainability and their global and local
interpretations and meaning as framed by global-local issues: Climate change, ecotourism
and economic development, environmentalism, human health, conservation, and biodiversity.
Emphasis is placed on contextualized examples of environmental, economic, social,
political, and cultural tensions related to sustainability. Includes field trips,
exercises and guest lectures by local scientists and activists.
Opportunities & Internships
Summer Research Program
Students have the opportunity to participate in the Goucher College Summer Science Research Program. Click here for more information.
Honors & Awards
Click here for more information.
Internships
Internships help students explore possibilities, apply classroom learning, and gain experience. Explore internships and credit options.
Student Employment
Student employment connects students to both on and off-campus opportunities. The Career Education Office provides resources and support to students with or without Federal Work Study to find jobs, submit applications, and learn more about the job search process. Students have access to Goucher Recruit — an online site for job postings and job fair events.
Major & Career Exploration
Exploring career options, choosing a major, and making career decisions is a multi-step process in which all students are encouraged to engage early and often. Goucher students have a variety of resources available through the Majors and Career page to assist them in this process.
Job Search
A Goucher education prepares students for today’s job market and beyond. Students can explore job opportunities and access job search resources through the CEO Job Search page.
Graduate & Professional School
Students access resources for searching and applying to graduate and professional school through the CEO Graduate and Professional School page, through faculty and staff members, or utilizing their own resources, network and tools.
Johns Hopkins Carey Business School 4+1 BA/MS Program
Goucher College and Johns Hopkins Carey Business School are offering Goucher students a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree program. This 4+1 program combines a bachelor’s degree from Goucher with a master of science degree from Johns Hopkins in business analytics and risk management, information systems, health care management, finance, or marketing. Students can apply during their junior year. GRE or GMAT tests have been waived but applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.25 or better and have passed some quantitative reasoning courses with a grade of B or better.
Alumni Spotlight
Nick Boucher ’14
Nick Boucher ’14
Read my story“ The Intensive Course Abroad (ICA) also gave me an experience that not a lot of people had. I felt very comfortable scuba diving for scientific purposes, not just pleasure. And because of that, I was able to get an internship at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. ”
News
- April 20, 2022
Goucher College and Johns Hopkins University have announced an agreement to create an entry pathway for Goucher undergraduate students pursuing a master's degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.
- October 19, 2021
Matched by alumnae/i contributions, the Maryland E-Nnovation Initiative Fund has awarded Goucher College $1 million to establish an endowed professorship to promote research and technology.
Events
- April 18, 2023
Join host, Jenn da Rosa, EdD, for a discussion with water law and policy specialist, Erin O’Donnell, PhD. This webinar, Goucher Environmental Dialogues: The Rights of Rivers,...