Prescott College
AC-2: Undergraduate Programs

Environmental literacy is based on an understanding of natural systems and processes integral to the diversity of life. Competence in this area implies recognizing unfolding global situations and supports using indigenous and Western ways of knowing to imagine and implement solutions. Literacy fosters healthy, caring, just, and regenerative relationships between human communities and the natural world.

• Learners explain the effects of humans on natural systems
• Learners apply understandings of scientific and ecological processes

Community Engagement focuses on collaborative, reciprocal partnerships to apply knowledge in a way that serves local humans and more than human communities. Students use the skills they gain in general education courses to implement community engagement activities through leadership, professional partnerships, and globally connected learning opportunities across their areas of study

• Learners analyze values and assumptions of self and community through collaborative engagement
• Learners are prepared to take ethical social action within a specific community engagement project

BS/BA in Sustainable Food Systems

Food System perspectives are emerging to ensure our food security and well-being in the face of inequities, the profound impact of human-induced climate change, and increased pressure on natural resources and organisms. Food systems encompass all of the elements and activities associated with what we eat and what nourishes us: growing, harvesting, processing, distributing, marketing, consuming, and waste. Students learn how to produce food in their communities with an emphasis on localized, urban, and suburban farming systems. Prescott College’s Sustainable Food Systems undergraduate degree program is grounded in the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations “10 Elements of Agroecology” because “...agroecology is the basis for evolving food systems that are equally strong in environmental, economic, social and agronomic dimensions.” This degree explores food systems, from agricultural processes to marketplace dynamics to food justice issues. Students engage in interdisciplinary study and practice, drawing on history, environmental studies and sciences, the humanities, business, and economics. Agroecology plays a central role in this degree.

BA in Sustainability Management

The Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability Management is designed to give students a home for their personal vision of designing and implementing measures that facilitate business goals and enterprise while considering environmental concerns. The program supports the physical environment of their community, the values, practices, and needs of humans who reside there, and the influences of, and access points to, relevant government and private enterprises whose activities affect the community's well-being. Projects done throughout the program will distill from studies and be designed to address authentic needs in the student’s community. Students may focus on rural or urban settings.

BA/BS in Environmental Studies

This degree aims to develop ecologically and scientifically literate, informed, and responsible citizens prepared to solve environmental problems and help build sustainable relationships between people and nature. Students gain a deep interdisciplinary understanding and experience of the scientific, political, economic, community-based, and social justice aspects of contemporary environmental problems. Through field-based application of knowledge, they develop the skills to be part of the solutions in various fields ranging from field ecology to resource management to community-based conservation and science communication. Students pursuing a BA in Environmental Studies will be able to address the values, processes, inquiry- and solution-generating abilities, and applications required to develop a philosophical understanding of an ethical stance regarding human nature interactions and relationships.

BA Sustainable Community Development

Given the urgency of developing more just, sustainable, and resilient communities, the Bachelor of Arts in Sustainable Community Development (SCD) is designed to expose learners to the world communities and help catalyze a vision of how to design, enhance, or restore vibrant, healthful communities. The program defines community as the convergence of humans and all other resident living beings that comprise the local ecosystem. Among other topics, learners can study the physical, natural, and cultural environments of the community(ies) that interest them, their values, practices, and needs, and the influences of, and access points to, relevant government and private enterprises whose activities affect their well-being. SCD is truly a transdisciplinary degree. Projects done throughout the program can easily expand into a Senior Project and be a launch point for a timely and meaningful job, career, or further graduate study (including accelerated pathways into our diverse graduate programs such as Resilient and Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Food Systems, and Interdisciplinary Studies, among others).

Concentration in Environmental Education

Students pursuing this emphasis experience explore the theory and practice of Environmental Education (EE), intertwined with empirical understanding from numerous observations, field experiences, and practicum opportunities. The emphasis of environmental education is highly interdisciplinary and complementary, as a breath to students studying education, environmental studies, adventure education, social justice, sustainability, human development, arts and letters, ecopsychology, and more.

Regenerative Ecological Design - ECOSA Institute

In an age defined by climate change, increasing economic inequalities, and a fraying of the social fabric, societies worldwide need innovative solutions to such challenges. Students will be at the forefront of innovation in energy systems, planning and policy, and community leadership by understanding energy economics, looking at other more sustainable cultural models, and applying ecological design principles to various contemporary challenges. Regenerative Ecological Design students learn architecture, energy systems, and policy change skills, leading to more sustainable homes, workplaces, and communities.

BA Social Justice Studies

Social Justice Studies is an action-oriented education that serves students drawn to understanding the big questions of our time and how everyday people can generate power for change. Social Justice Studies welcomes people who want to develop their skills, experience, and knowledge to directly participate in building a more socially and environmentally just and life-affirming world. Our curriculum leads you to do these things: Move beyond hunches and opinions and learn to analyze by studying social systems and developing your social, environmental, and political consciousness and cultural competence; Recognize, learn from, and participate in the movements that are reframing and re-describing what is possible, their projects and visions; Develop the skills and abilities to identify your sense of purpose and mobilize your talents to contribute to transdisciplinary movements for justice.

BA Psychology and Human Development

The BA in Psychology and Human Development at Prescott College emphasizes critical, holistic, and social/environmental justice perspectives in studying individual, societal, and institutional/organizational well-being. These perspectives include recognizing and including diverse voices, experiences, and ways of knowing; sociocultural factors; and issues of power, privilege, and oppression. Learners apply critically and ethically informed psychological knowledge toward supporting individual and societal well-being. The BA contains courses in ecopsychology, nature therapy, sustainable consumption, and understanding the subjectivities of neoliberalism.