BS Community Environment and Development

Community, Environment, and Development is a hands-on, multidisciplinary program that helps students understand and address challenges faced by communities abroad and at home. It focuses on areas like sustainability, community, development, local governance, and more with the goal of balancing environmental stewardship with improved quality of life. The major emphasizes critical thinking, core knowledge, and the skills required for professional success working on such issues. Graduates take leadership roles in a variety of areas, such as corporate social responsibility, environment/sustainability, economic development, government, land use planning, and the non-profit sector. Foundation (Level I) courses introduce students to key concepts in economics and sociology, and how these inform an understanding of community, sustainability and the environment, quality of life, and the economy. Level II courses build on the Foundation courses by using these concepts to take deep looks at issues like climate change, inequality, corporate social responsibility, and land use to assess what’s working- and what needs work. Coursework in Methods, Quantification and Communication is also required, including skills and techniques such as Geographical Information Analysis, statistics, applied research methods, and the communication skills for successfully engaging governments, businesses, other organizations, and residents.