The faculty and students in Ohio Wesleyan's Environment & Sustainability Department care deeply about the environmental challenges facing our communities and the world, and they are engaged in the necessary work to protect and preserve the environment for generations to come.

The department offers you three majors and a variety of approaches and perspectives for understanding the full scope of environmental issues facing our global society.

  • The Environmental Science major focuses on courses in the natural sciences.
  • The Environmental Studies major balances courses from the social and natural sciences, humanities, and arts through a network of more than 30 faculty members from diverse disciplines.
  • The Geography major provides a theoretical and applied foundation for understanding relationships between human activities and the earth's natural environment.

When you combine these degrees with OWU's traditional liberal arts core, you are well equipped for leadership, service, careers, and continued learning in a world where environmental issues are of vital importance.

We also offer a minor in Food Studies as a joint program between the Environment & Sustainability and the Health & Human Kinetics departments.

Alumni from majors in OWU's Environment & Sustainability Department are scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, educators, healthcare providers, advocates, and more. They're pursuing successful careers in government agencies (such as the EPA, FEMA, and the U.S. Geological Survey), nonprofit organizations (such as zoos, The Carter Center, and The Nature Conservancy), educational institutions (including the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, San Diego, and Villanova), and private industry and healthcare organizations across the nation. They have earned graduate, medical, and professional degrees at outstanding universities.

Department Features

  • Students, faculty, staff, and community members work together on campus and in regional projects. The entire campus community makes sustainability work at OWU.

  • You can put your learning into action by developing a sustainability project on campus or in Delaware. Students choose locations to conduct their research and collect data to investigate solutions to real-world problems. You can serve on the Sustainability Task Force, work with a faculty mentor on a research project, and present the results of your research at OWU's annual student symposium. See the OWU Sustainability Blog for a list of past projects.

  • You can participate in local and regional internships with the Stratford Ecological Center, Preservation Parks of Delaware CountySeminary Hill Farm, and the City of Delaware, among others.

  • You can join environmentally themed Travel-Learning Courses in the Caribbean, Brazil, Costa Rica, and others.

Available Majors

Available Minors

Department Contact Info

Location

Schimmel/Conrades Science Center 202
Ohio Wesleyan University
Delaware, OH 43015

Department Contacts

Interim Chair: Nathan Rowley
Associate Professor of Environment & Sustainability
Schimmel/Conrades Science Center 202
740-368-3619 | nrowley@owu.edu

Academic Assistant: Joshua Seiders
Schimmel/Conrades Science Center 201
740-368-3907 | jjseiders@owu.edu