Friday, Sept. 27, students, alumni and community members will gather to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the environmental studies program at Ohio University. The event will offer students a chance to network and learn from alums now in the field.
Started in 1974, the Master in Science in Environmental Studies, or MSES, program was created for post-graduate students, as an interdisciplinary program aimed at providing students with opportunities to engage in advocacy, policy-making and sustainability efforts regarding climate challenges.
OU also hosts environmental studies as an undergraduate major in the Honors Tutorial College (HTC), where students take one-on-one tutorials with professors based on their interests within the field.
Stephen Scanlan, the HTC director of studies for environmental studies, discussed the importance of the individualized approach to teaching environmental studies.
“HTC environmental studies give students a lot of flexibility,” Scanlan said. “It gives them options that let them basically construct and pursue a degree through their coursework and their tutorials that most suits what they want to emphasize, learn, apply, go on to do professionally and in graduate school.”
This Friday, the Ridges Auditorium will host an alumni panel at 1:00 p.m. and a luncheon at 2:00 p.m. to celebrate the program’s 50 years of achievements and local impact.
Geoff Dabelko, a professor at the Voinovich School and former director of the environmental studies program, discussed the significance of the program’s 50-year anniversary.
“50 years ago is when this country, and in some ways countries around the world, were first stepping up to get serious about studying the environment,” Dabelko said.
According to Dabelko, 1974 was only a few years after the first Earth Day, and it was just a couple of years after the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and some of our landmark legislation for this country.
Since its start in the 70s, the program has brought students to Athens from across the world for its unique hands-on, interdisciplinary approach to climate sciences.
Rachel Martin, a 2020 graduate of the HTC environmental studies program, will be a panelist at the event. She plans to discuss her work at Conservation X Labs as the extinction solutions index and research manager.
“This panel shows you the options that a degree in environmental studies can give you, and the voices and faces of those that have careers because of their degree,” Martin said.
Martin mentions the panel allowing students to better understand the program’s resources.
“It allows you to ask them - while you're in the program, exploring classes, or even teaching in the program - what things were really beneficial, what there could be more of, and what needs to happen for the next 50 years of the environmental studies program,” she said.
This fall, Martin will be starting her Ph.D. at the University of Oxford in the Department of Biology, as well as serving as the Technical Manager at the Nature Positive Initiative. Martin credits the environmental studies program for making this opportunity possible.
“The environmental studies program really allowed me to approach complex problems holistically and understand what element of the problem could be solved through what lever,” Martin said. “Addressing the underlying root causes of the problem have always been what interests me, and my program allowed me to have the foundation to know where to look to solve those problems.”
