Environmental Science Major: Northern Kentucky University, Greater Cincinnati Region

Program Type: Undergraduate

Minor Requirements: View requirements

You have a passion for the environment. Would you like to integrate environmental skills and knowledge into your chosen career path? Or perhaps you simply want to be more informed about where you work, live and play. The Environmental Studies minor will get you there!

United by our passion for the environment, NKU’s environmental studies minor offers a foundation in environmental science followed by great flexibility in course choice and a focus on real-world applications and career readiness.

Program Contacts

Lynn Crane
Academic Advisor
(859) 572-5306
cranel1@nku.edu

Students in the Spotlight

Sarah Goodrich

Graduating Year: 2019

Education: Environmental Studies minor + BS, Biological Sciences

Career: Aquatic Toxicologist, current Ph.D. student at University of Cincinnati

Sarah took advantage of many opportunities while at NKU as an employee in the Chemistry Stock Room, a research student studying white-nose fungus in bats and she worked on another research project focused on reforestation. Sarah was also a member of the NKU pep band. Since graduating, she has completed an MA in Geography at UC, while working as a Pathways Physical Scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Sarah is current studying harmful algal blooms at multiple scales.

View All Stories

Find Your Passions & Build Your Future

Student-Centered Mentoring: Faculty in ENV are focused on providing top-level research experiences for the undergraduate students at NKU. Student mentees are integral to the success of their research projects. From these experiences’ students gain more than an appreciation for what it takes to do research, they also can form important networking relationships, travel to present their work at conferences, and become co-authors on publications.
Immersive Learning Opportunities: Environmental science encompasses some of the world’s most complex problems and to train our students to be successful beyond NKU, we put great emphasis on real-world learning in our classes. This means that in almost all ENV classes, students either work with real data collated by scientists on public databases or they work collaboratively on projects with local community and governmental organizations. The “semester project” in an ENV class, becomes a line directly on your resume! Example – Volunteer Scientist, Worked with the City of Covington, Solid Waste & Recycling to study litter in high traffic areas and created messaging to reduce the problem.
Career-Oriented: The ENV Program is 100% focused on helping students build their resumes! We begin by having students take our Careers course where students network with different employers each week. This helps students learn more about all of the directions one may go in with an ENV degree. All ENV majors and minors are required to complete an internship or research experience. We have direct relationships with dozens of employers in the region and beyond to help students find the perfect fit. In our culminating seminar course, students build their resume again by either working on a project in direct collaboration with community partners or use public scientific data to answer pressing environmental questions. When you graduate from ENV, you will be highly competitive and on your way to your dream career!

Keep exploring. Visit the department website.