George Washington University
AC-3: Undergraduate Program

The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Environmental Studies is a multidisciplinary, science-based degree program that focuses on interactions between people and both the natural and built environments. Housed in the Department of Geography, the program explores sustainability issues through the social sciences, humanities and physical and life sciences.

Through the major, students develop strong interdisciplinary skills, and the research and writing skills to work across disciplines and convey information to diverse sets of stakeholders. This broad training prepares Environmental Studies students to consider complex environmental challenges—and their social components—like climate change; extinction and habitat loss; and equity and urban sustainability. All Environmental Studies students take courses in field research methods, GIS, and a capstone class that provides students with applied research and policy analysis experiences and an accompanying portfolio.

The Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Public Health program offers students the chance to acquire knowledge and skills in the critical component elements of public health. The ASPPH defines public health as a force that ""protects and improves the health of individuals, families, communities, and populuations, locally and globally."" In this context, the GW SPH undergraduate program is intended to convey technical detail and analytical thinking, but with a liberal arts philosophical base, to create professionals with the skills and commitment to improve the public's health.

The curriculum prepares students for future practice and study, with courses such as Epidemiology, Principles of Health Education & Promotion, Health Policy, and more. Students develop their abilities in critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis of information, applying them to the historical and current trends in public health and health care delivery.

The B.S. Public Health program hopes to matriculate students who will take their public health voice into diverse fields of professional practice, bringing an informed and evidence-based viewpoint to public health issues affecting society at large.

The Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Environmental and Sustainability Science program equips students with a broad foundation in the sciences with which they can take advantage of important new quantitative skills in geospatial techniques and data science and develop a concentration in either Earth and Environmental Science or Ecological Management. Required coursework incorporates science classes from across the university, with elective options including Conservation Biology, Water Resources, Oceanography, and more. Through varied courses, internships, and undergraduate research, students gain experience one of the fastest-growing career fields.

https://sustainability.gwu.edu/degree-programs

Students at GW come from around the world to connect to diverse ideas, cultures, and ways of life. The 18-credit minor in sustainability offers students a rigorous platform to examine critical sustainability issues and solutions. The program begins with Introduction to Sustainability, a team-taught course that equips students with a strong foundation in global sustainability principles and paradigms. Students build on this foundation by further investigating sustainability through the lenses of ecosystems, economies, communities, and practices. The capstone experience provides students with a structure for applying what they’ve learned through a semester-long research, service, and/or internship project. Students are empowered to consider the competing perspectives of stakeholders, the unintended consequences of decisions, and how interventions at different levels and scales affect systems and their component parts. Ultimately, students gain the tools necessary for creating healthy and thriving resource systems.


Our program collaborates with key faculty and staff spanning a multitude of departments and disciplines across campus. We work closely with Planet Forward, the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, the Food Policy Institute and the Environmental and Energy Management Institute. We support these partners by encouraging students to enroll in their sustainability courses, participate in research and service, and engage in their events and activities. These partners support the minor by identifying students who are committed to sustainability and are interested in pursuing the minor.

GW's Department of Civil Engineering (CEE) offers an ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. Students majoring in civil engineering may also elect to study the environmental degree option offered by the department.

GW’s civil engineering program teaches the fundamentals of environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, water resources engineering, and transportation engineering. Our students leave GW prepared to plan, design, and construct buildings, bridges, roads, airports, and rapid transit systems or they go on to specialize in pollution control, hazardous waste cleanup, or water and wastewater treatment systems.

Graduates with the degree of bachelor of science in civil engineering, environmental engineering option, can identify, formulate, and solve problems involving design, experimentation, and analysis of a wide variety of civil engineering applications. The program of study prepares students to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global economic, environmental, and social context. The well-structured curriculum enables students to design systems, components, or processes to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability.

This concentration offers a multidisciplinary exploration of international environmental challenges by examining such issues as sustainable development in relation to the environment, climate change, energy and natural resources, and environmental security. Graduates of this concentration should have the ability to analyze and understand international environmental challenges and their underlying causes, and the ways in which states, non-state actors, and the international community seek to address these challenges.

https://sustainability.gwu.edu/degree-programs

Not all sustainability degree programs are currently on our website, as we are using this STARS submission process to update our website and university Bulletin.