Environmental Studies

Overview

Graduates with the first concentration are prepared to become environmental professionals in positions such as naturalists with parks and other outdoor organizations and environmental educators in camps and social service agencies. Those with environmental planning find employment in municipal and not-for-profit agencies, in natural resource planning and management, water resources, solid waste issues, ecological restoration, park development, and environmental policy at the local, state, regional, or national level.

Program Objectives

Students of the Environmental Studies program of the Northeastern Illinois University are expected to develop:

• knowledge drawn from the natural sciences concerning structure, function, and effect of change in ecosystems; from the social sciences concerning factors that affect natural systems such as population pressures, pollution, resource utilization and depletion; from the humanities concerning the relationships of ethics and values to environmental attitudes and behaviors 

• knowledge of interrelationships involving economics, politics, and perceptions in environmental decision making

• knowledge related to causes of environmental deterioration and constructive efforts to deal with environmental problems in a historical and contemporary context 

• the ability to acquire information through field observations, interviews, and surveys, as well as from maps, aerial photographs, satellite imagery, computerized information, and a variety of other prepared sources 

• analytical skills to process information derived from the above sources 

• the ability to prepare effective oral, written, and graphic presentations

• the ability to apply relevant theoretical perspectives to actual environmental problems