Program Components

Majors & Coursework

Students in the Environmental Fellows Program may choose any major, but will complete the required coursework, a field experience, and the senior capstone for the program. They will also participate in co-curricular programming, such as outreach projects and presentations by visiting speakers.

Program coursework consists of a minimum of six courses that have a strong environmental focus or contain material that is considered basic to a student specializing in an environmental field.  These include courses from the sciences (minimum of three) and from the arts, humanities, or social sciences (minimum of three).  In addition, the program includes an interdisciplinary capstone course in which students will collaborate with other members of their cohort to bring each aspect of their environmental education at DePauw (including their major, cross-disciplinary environmental coursework, and experiential learning) to bear on concrete environmental issues or problems.

FIELD EXPERIENCE

Environmental Fellows each have a field experience during their junior year that compliments their individual curriculum.  This requirement may be completed in a number of ways.  For example, students might participate in an extended academic research experience, an approved off-campus study programs, or in an internship with a corporation, government agency, or non-governmental organization. While the specific form and content of the field experience are tailored to each student's interests and learning goals, it must focus on the environment. It is meant build a strong experiential learning component into the student’s academic program and provide them with opportunities that are not generally available as part of their DePauw coursework.

CO-CURRICULAR PROGRAMMING

The Environmental Fellows Programs serves the greater campus community and fosters connections among students within the program through regular co-curricular activities on a range of environmental topics. Sample activities include: speakers, service events, community outreach projects, field trips, social events, and workshops. Much of the co-curricular programming is driven by student interest and initiative.

Winter Term

We intend in the future to design environmentally-focused winter term study trips or on-campus courses for each year's cohort of incoming Environmental Fellows.  These winter term experiences would introduce students to academic approaches to environmental problems, facilitate camaraderie among students in the cohort, and build faculty-student relationships.