Allegheny College offers multiple pathways by which students can study the environment:
Major in Environmental Science: For students interested in fields such as air and water quality, conservation biology, agro-ecology, pollution biology, environmental engineering, forestry, and fisheries. Areas of concentration include: conservation ecology, terrestrial ecosystems, aquatic ecosystems, landscape ecology, environmental toxicology, environmental geology and environmental chemistry.
Major in Environmental Studies: For students interested in environmental law, public policy, environmental art, environmental literature, philosophy, women and the environment, resource management, environmental writing, and land use planning. Areas of concentration include: environmental philosophy, environmental history, communications and the environment, ecological economics, environmental law, environmental policy, international sustainable development, culture and the environment, art and the environment, environmental education, community development, German cultures and the environment, and urban planning and land use.
Major in Environmental Geology: This program is designed to prepare students for graduate study involving Earth-surface processes or for employment as environmental geologists. It emphasizes those areas with most immediate societal relevance -- hydrogeology, coastal processes, geomorphic processes, energy resources, land use, geochemistry of water and soils, etc. Students take at least eight geology courses, plus the Junior Seminar and Senior Project, as well as at least one environmental science course, two chemistry courses, two math courses and one physics course.
Minor in Art and the Environment: An interdisciplinary minor in which the student creatively confronts the global environmental crisis. Students combine knowledge obtained about the physical and social environment with experience acquired from immersion in various artistic and creative endeavors to imagine and construct possible solutions to contemporary environmental problems.
Environmental Writing Track in English: Coursework includes classes in Literature about the Environment, Writing about the Environment, the Advanced Nonfiction Writing Workshop, two courses from among Writing Fiction, Technical/Professional Writing, News Writing, Forms of Nonfiction; three courses in Environmental Science or their equivalent; and a Senior Project in environmental writing. The College publishes French Creek: The Journal of Undergraduate Environmental Writing and Art, an online journal of original essays, poetry, fiction, and artwork focused on place-based or environmental subject matter.
Additional opportunities for academic study of environmental issues exist in these departments:
Students can also blaze their own trails at Allegheny, choosing to self-design a major.
In addition, Allegheny students take advantage of a wide range of internships with environmental organizations, nonprofits, and government agencies. Internships are available on campus with CEED, various academic departments, and the Center for Political Participation, to name a few.
Internships are also available through the Values, Ethics and Social Action program. Through the Davies Community Service Leader Program, Allegheny students are given the opportunity to work with Meadville area organizations such as the Meadville-Western Crawford County Chamber of Commerce, the Meadville Area Industrial Complex, and Active Aging.
Close faculty-student interaction is the norm at Allegheny, with faculty often inviting students to aid them in their own research. It is not uncommon for our students to present papers at national conferences or to be published as co-authors with faculty in national journals.
With a liberal arts background, students are prepared for a multitude of career paths. Our graduates who choose careers in the environmental field have gone on to work in environmental law, urban planning, land use or resource management, environmental journalism, environmental regulation, environmental research, environmental assessments, and developing a "green economy."
