Our multidisciplinary Environmental Studies (ENVR) Department integrates courses in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences to give students the tools they need to examine complex environmental issues in depth and assess them from a variety of perspectives. The program combines a solid academic foundation with extensive experiential learning opportunities. Frequent opportunities for research and community engagement provide ENVR graduates with a substantial foundation for further graduate study or meaningful careers in environmental fields.
We are happy to help if you have any questions or need assistance! For departmental questions or questions about using the outdoor classroom, please contact Jaime Bunting, Program Specialist, at jrbunting@salisbury.edu or Dr. Tami Ransom, Department Chair, at tsransom@salisbury.edu.
For the outdoor adventurer who loves marshes, rivers, forests, and barrier islands, there's no better-situated university on the east coast. Tucked between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, students can explore some of the mid-Atlantic’s most intact river systems, the Nanticoke and the Pocomoke; study coastal barrier islands such as Cedar and Assateague Islands; visit major wildlife refuges at Blackwater and Chincoteague; observe working watermen’s communities on Smith and Tangier Islands; and investigate close to a hundred thousand acres of regional wetlands.
ENVR offers a flexible and relevant mix of coursework and field opportunities—and, above all, the chance to cultivate what Rachel Carson termed “a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.”
Learn more about the programs offered by our department:
Find out how the major’s interdisciplinary approach empowered Rachel to make a difference in her community.
We start broadly. The syllabus begins: ‘[This course] is about learning how to live in a place without screwing it up.’ Which brings me to giving hope. To me, hope means envisioning, without resorting to science fiction, pathways to a Chesapeake about which we can someday feel optimistic. There’s plenty to teach there.
Tom HortonAuthor and Environmental Studies Department Faculty
Getting Our Hands Dirty
ENVR majors gain valuable real-world experience through a wide variety of activities. Opportunities for study abroad abound: ENVR students can snorkel coral reefs in Honduras, investigate glacial landscapes in Iceland, or explore biodiversity in the Amazon. Some share meals with rural villagers in India, while others study sea turtles in Trinidad.
Closer to home, our students canoe remote Eastern Shore creeks, kayak to Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay, whose culture boasts over 300 years of history and traditions harvesting local waters, and witness the mass spawning of horseshoe crabs along the Delaware Bay. They create pollinator gardens, build wildlife habitat sculptures, and investigate an ever-changing range of Chesapeake Bay topics with award-winning author Tom Horton. Green Floor Living-Learning Community students share common ENVR classes, develop environmentally-oriented activities, and perform green service projects. ENVR students intern in organizations as diverse as:
Since 2004, we’ve been developing a community of people that are passionate about the environment – trying our very best to understand it, to care for it, and certainly not least, to enjoy it. Every university has many subcultures; ours is based upon engagement, experiential learning, excellence, and cultivating community. We engage some of the crucial questions of our time – how can human social systems and natural systems interact in a positive way? – and we engage our environments, including the people who live with and around us, as well as the natural landscapes that make the Eastern Shore justly famous as the mid-Atlantic’s playground. Almost every one of our courses involves experiential learning — field trips, field work, applied projects with community partners, and real-world problem solving are common in our curriculum. More than half of our graduates complete an internship, and almost half of our graduates have studied abroad. And we constantly seek excellence in the work of our students and faculty. We aspire to be a regional and national leader in Environmental Studies, and have been recognized as the top Environmental Studies program in Maryland (and 35th ranked in the U.S.).
We don’t just study hard, however. We believe that the most effective education occurs when students and faculty share a common sense of community. We are located in the Environmental Studies House, a space that includes a student lounge, a basement that has been converted into a woodshop by the Environmental Students Association “Builders” (they make bird and bat boxes, rain barrels, and other projects), a kitchen used by the ESA “Foodies” (for weekly meetings to cook and eat environmentally-responsible food), and the house also includes our faculty offices. The grounds of the Environmental Studies House includes plenty of space for our once-a-semester student-faculty potluck picnics (called GreenFest in the spring), and serves as a lab space for our sustainable landscape design course. Freshman are encouraged to live in the Green Floor Living Learning Community, and our department has a fleet of kayaks, camping equipment, and even a couple of mountain bikes (we know, pretty ambitious to have mountain bikes in the flattest part of Maryland).
Please don’t hesitate to stop by the Environmental Studies House with any questions you may have – or if you’re looking for a good place to take a paddle.
Stewardship and advocacy opportunities comprise an important part of our program. Our students have worked to ban arsenic in chicken feed, helped political candidates push for storm water regulations, removed invasive privet from a local forests, and taught area middle school students how to monitor electricity use. They held a fundraiser to purchase an Environmental Studies greenhouse, built raised bed gardens at a nearby elementary school, and mapped out an interpretive trail at a local forest preserve. ENVR students are growing vegetables on campus, working to develop an on-campus sustainability tour for both students and visitors, and are developing plans for the ENVR House grounds in their Sustainable Landscape Design class, which we hope will serve as a learning laboratory for both SU and the wider community.
Each summer, our department hosts a course that really puts the “environment” into Environmental Studies: Kayaking Delmarva. This course gives students an opportunity to experience the Delmarva Peninsula as never before: traveling by kayak along some of the wildest and most scenic areas remaining in the mid-Atlantic, through landscapes that still resemble what Captain John Smith saw during his explorations 400 years ago, and camping along the way. Participants explore pristine rivers, watermen’s communities, and remote barrier islands, and spend time with naturalists, environmental organizations, and visit research labs. We dine on crab cakes and fresh-caught fish, sample oysters and Smith Island eight-layer cakes, and gain an in-depth understanding of the ecology, culture, history, and politics of Delmarva.
The class is actually composed of two three-credit courses: ENVR 460 Chesapeake Bay Topics and ENVR 495 Environmental Field Studies. As a result, students receive six credits, fulfilling the experiential component of the ENVR major and gaining an ENVR humanities elective. More importantly, they acquire the self-confidence that comes from taking care of themselves outdoors and the deep appreciation that comes from exploring wild landscapes under their own power.
This course starts in late May and runs through early July. Generally, the first week focuses on the upper Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay; week two explores Virginia’s Atlantic barrier islands, week three follows the Nanticoke River, and week four is a capstone experience out on the islands of the Chesapeake. During the final week students create and present their final projects. We return to Salisbury each weekend to recuperate between trips.
The course is limited 12 students and fills quickly. Students must be in the junior or senior year and submit a personal statement and character reference from a SU professor as part of enrollment. Total cost, which includes tuition and fees, is approximately $2,800 (depending upon final arrangements, which are made in the spring).
Environmental studies students can gain valuable experience in the field – and fulfill the Environmental Experiences component of the major – through internships.
The purpose of the Bioenvirons Club is to promote understanding and awareness of environmental issues, to provide educational guidance and career development in the field of environmental science, and to provide recreational activities and wilderness opportunities for members.
The Gardening Club, a completely student-run organization, was started in early 2012, its purpose to establish and maintain the front vegetable garden located near the corner of Camden and College Avenues. The club supplies produce to local restaurants and works with local farms in the area, and in the future hopes to include public schools in their outreach to educate the community. Membership is open to all students; members get to share the delicious results of their labors!
The Environmental Students Association is an activity-oriented group of environmentally-minded students working to build community, achieve campus sustainability, and improve our relationships with the natural world. Join us for eco-conscious cooking, habitat building, Green Fund project creation, eco education and much more! Membership is open to all full time students and alumni.
The Outdoor Club began in 1981 as a student organization to promote conservation activities and environmental awareness in the University community. Since its inception, students have participated in outdoor adventures as far away as Florida, Canada, and Texas. Locally, trips have been taken to Assateague Island and the Pocomoke River. The club is dedicated to serving all students wishing to participate and to educating all students in survival skills and conservation philosophy.
In a world of increasingly complex environmental problems, growing focus on sustainability and “greening” society, and efforts to include environmental study in K-12 education, the type and number of jobs available to Environmental Studies majors grows daily. SU’s Environmental Studies program gives graduates solid preparation for the future.
Through a series of meetings with their advisors, most ENVR majors find themselves working toward one of six career paths, and choose a minor and elective courses accordingly. These paths, in brief are:
Land/ Resource Management - working with the National Park Service, MD Department of Natural Resources, private organizations such as the Nature Conservancy, etc.
Pollution Control/Abatement - working with the E.P.A. or the MD Department of the Environment
Environmental Advocacy - this can be either at the national level, working for organizations such as the Sierra Club, the regional level, working for organizations such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, or the local level, working for organizations such as the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance
Eco-Tourism/Environmental Education - this involves experiential education, working for outdoor camps, eco-tourism organizations, etc. This major does NOT prepare you to teach high school Environmental Science.
Sustainable Business - working in the environmental management division of a private business, or in their sustainability office
Graduate School or Law School - environmental law, environmental studies MA/MS/PhD programs ,or disciplinary graduate programs with an environmental focus.
Helpful Links for Finding Jobs
Idealist.org - Resource from Action Without Borders, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Can search by topic or geography.
The Student Conservation Association (SCA) Programs - The SCA provides opportunities for young people to make a positive impact on the world around them. They put students to work in parks, public lands, and urban green spaces to make improvements and learn conservation and sustainability practices. Opportunities are NOT paid, but food and housing are supplied. Some positions are specifically for grad students.
The High Country News job postings site - Helpful for anyone who wants to work in the Western U.S. region that stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
Ornithological Exchange - Bird-related work, from short-term, to graduate work, to full-time careers.
AmeriCorps - AmeriCorps engages more than 80,000 Americans in intensive service each year at 21,600 unique sites including nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups across the country. A wide range of opportunities across the nation. Good experience in national service while earning a living stipend as well as money to put toward school costs/loans.
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Bulletin - The AASHE is a non-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization that empowers higher education faculty, administrators, staff and students to be effective change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation. A listing of internships, fellowships, and positions from across the country.
Also be sure to visit SU’s Career Services as you plan your next steps.
