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Environmental Studies, B.A.

Preparing the next generation of environmental professionals to overcome emerging challenges at the intersection between social and environmental justice.

CSUMB students on campus grounds

The Environmental Studies program will educate and inspire you with the knowledge, skills, and compassion to promote social and environmental justice and sustainable communities in a wide range of invigorating career pathways.

Empowering You to Excel in Your Chosen Profession

The program will prepare you to take advantage of the rapidly expanding job market for environmental professionals in education, communication, environmental justice, planning, law health, and sustainability.

You’ll find our graduates thriving and leading at organizations across the spectrum of business and industry, including:

  • Bird School Project
  • Bureau of Land Management
  • Cactus High School, Peoria Arizona
  • CalFire
  • California Department of Food and Agriculture
  • California Department of Water Resources
  • California Rural Legal Assistance
  • California State Parks
  • Catalina Island Marine Institute
  • Center for Blue Economy
  • City of Bellevue, Washington
  • City of San Jose, California
  • City of Seaside, California
  • City of Watsonville, California
  • City of Woodland, California
  • Climate Now
  • County of Tuolumne, California (Planner)
  • Dolphin Quest Oahu
  • El Sausal Middle School, Salinas, California
  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, 
  • Golden Gate National Recreation Area
  • Google
  • Green Waste Recovery
  • Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
  • Kleinfelder (Environmental Planning Firm), Oakland
  • Loggerhead Marine Life Center
  • Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health
  • Marina Coast Water District
  • MEarth
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • National Park Service
  • New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
  • NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
  • Ojai Valley Inn (Sustainability Manager)
  • Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History
  • Rana Creek Nursery
  • Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge
  • Santa Clara Valley Water District
  • Seaside High School
  • Skansa: Field Engineer in charge of community relations for the San Fernando Light Rail Project for Los Angeles Metro
  • Tetra Tech, Planner, Pasadena, CA
  • Tiü'vac'a'ai Tribal Conservation Corps
  • Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance
  • Ventana Wildlife Society
  • Western Shasta Resource Conservation District

The program’s emphasis on community-engaged learning, intentional community partnerships, opportunities for leadership and advocacy, and promotion of environmental literacy delivers the perfect preparation that can be applied in any number of professional roles, including:

  • Divemaster and marine science instructor
  • Early childhood educator
  • Education coordinator
  • Environmental educator
  • Environmental scientist
  • Environmental stewardship educator
  • Farm youth educator
  • Forestry technician
  • High school science teacher
  • Museum educator
  • Naturalist
  • NEPA program manager
  • Nursery manager
  • Outdoor education instructor
  • Outreach specialist, outreach coordinator
  • Planner, environmental planner, urban planner
  • Restoration ecologist
  • Sustainability manager, sustainability consultant, sustainability advisor
  • Tribal wildfire resilience coordinator
  • Urban park ranger
  • Video production

Graduates of our program who choose to advance their studies with a graduate degree find opportunities at elite colleges and universities, some of which include: 

  • Cal Poly Pomona
  • CSU Northridge
  • CSUMB, Scientific Illustration Program
  • Middlebury Institute of International Studies
  • San Francisco State University
  • San Jose State University
  • UC Berkeley
  • UC Davis
  • UC Davis
  • UC Santa Cruz Science
  • University of Bayreuth
  • University of Maine School of Law
  • University of Oregon
  • University of Stirling, Scotland
  • University of the Pacific
  • University of Washington
Aerial Image of Campus

Public University Price, Private University Experience

A Lifetime of Value

Tuition & Fees Financial Aid

Environmental Studies, B.A.

The program will fuel your academic and professional growth with an intentional integration of community-focused, interdisciplinary, and applied problem-solving skills that will uniquely position you to tackle a range of environmental pressures, from the impacts of climate change to biodiversity loss to environmental and social justice.

Educational Objectives

Our solutions-focused curriculum and opportunities will powerfully equip you with the knowledge, research experiences, and applied skills to frame problems, investigate solutions, engage stakeholders, and visualize complex ideas along the path to applied problem solving.

Our capstone courses and project will put you to work with community partners to plan and implement regionally relevant research and applied outreach, serving as an impressive culminating project, enriching your hands-on skills and abilities, and helping to meet local and regional environmental needs.

Our concentrations in Sustainable Communities and Education and Community Outreach link with more than a dozen other minors across the University’s program offerings and will offer you a personalized path for specializing your studies in a way that best aligns with your career goals. 

Our intentional flexibility will allow you to craft your own, custom curriculum that enhances the program’s core with electives, options for a minor, and individually-tailored coursework based on your future academic and career goals.

Complete all of the following Environmental Studies core courses:

Complete one of the following Environmental Science courses:

Complete one of the following courses:

Complete one of the following courses:

Complete one of the following courses:

Complete one of the following Capstone Project courses:

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CONCENTRATION

Complete one of the following courses:

Complete one of the following courses:

Complete one of  the following courses:

Sustainable Communities Electives:

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH CONCENTRATION

Complete the following courses:

Complete one of the following Environmental Education in a Community Setting courses:

Education and Community Outreach Electives:

You’ll engage in a learning experience that makes the most of our distinctive coastal setting, with courses and lab work that unfolds at local conservation and environmental education sites like Watsonville Wetlands Watch and the Elkhorn Slough for field-based learning experiences. 

Your courses will regularly integrate field-based learning within local and regional ecosystems, including an opportunity to take part in an outdoor education practicum at the Elkhorn Slough Foundation’s Carneros Creek Outdoor Classroom in the community of Las Lomas.

Community-engaged learning is interwoven throughout the program’s curriculum, as a way to instill in you an appreciation and dedication to using your knowledge of pressing environmental issues to improve lives and communities.

You’ll develop your skills working on community-based restoration projects along with research and courses like Environmental Interpretation, Civic Ecology, and Social and Ecological Justice. These learning initiatives will empower you to view environmental problems through a social justice and equity lens, and strive to develop applied and locally contextual solutions to environmental challenges.

News

Read about our student success and faculty innovation in CSUMB News

Questions? We’re Here to Help!

Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you have about the Environmental Studies program.

Our experienced and supportive admissions staff is here to provide all the individualized guidance you need.Apply Now

Study Environmental Studies in an inspiring coastal environment where we are truly committed to mentorship and an engaging student experience.