The Food Forest is a student-created and student-led living-learning laboratory for just and sustainable land management.
Professor of Environmental Studies Patrick Hurley and Kaelin Ryan ‘26 tend to a pawpaw tree in the Ursinus Food Forest. Ryan is one of three agroecology fellows spending the summer working in the food forest, which boasts more than 30 species of trees and shrubs.
Create an ecologically vibrant, economically, and socially just world by addressing complex environmental problems.
put your coursework into action
Through integrative coursework and hands-on projects, students develop crucial problem-solving skills. Both our majors and minors engage in applied projects related to climate change, biodiversity, agriculture, circular economies, GIS, urban planning, water systems, geology, and natural resource stewardship.
Our students refine their analytical and technical skills through field experiences. They collaborate with community partners on ecological restoration, environmental management, and waste reduction projects. They also engage in food production at the campus farm and Whittaker Environmental Research agroecological field site, maintain the Ursinus Food Forest, and participate in BearShare circular economies.
Join a Dynamic and rapidly expanding field
The need for experts in environment and sustainability is growing. Our majors and minors can choose from 7 concentrations. Each concentration provides a unique path with focused coursework and experiential learning to match your interest.
Majors & minors:
The Applied Sustainability major prepares students to develop knowledge and critical analytical skills in the environmental, societal, and economic dimensions of sustainability studies that will foster an ability to enact change within systems.
The Environmental Studies major fosters a student’s ability to synthesize diverse disciplinary perspectives and approaches, drawing on and integrating theoretical and empirical approaches from the natural sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities to understand and develop strategies for solving environmental problems.
Environmental Studies majors can elect to concentrate in one of the below tracks by directing their course selections through the major purposefully:
Biodiversity & Wildlife Conservation is an interdisciplinary minor designed for students interested in protecting and enhancing natural systems and the diverse flora and fauna these systems support. The minor program allows students to explore aspects of biodiversity and wildlife conservation related to biology (foundational, organismal, and community aspects), dimensions of environmental science (longer-term change and planetary forces), and environmental studies (focusing on the relationship of human interactions and decision-making that affect extinction and protection efforts).
The Climate Change is an interdisciplinary minor designed for students interested in learning more of the science involving the global climate system, the natural and anthropogenic changes that have, are, and are likely to occur and the impacts on Earth and life on Earth, as well as important interactions with human systems, who can affect the climate system, but are also affected by it.
The Earth & Environmental Science is an interdisciplinary minor focuses on developing knowledge and skills important for understanding Earth, including the natural and anthropogenic processes that occur at or near Earth’s surface. It allows students to engage in the study of Earth and environmental systems from a number of fields, including geological, environmental, biological, marine, and chemical perspectives, and considers Earth as a resource worthy of protection as well as one with hazards.
Environmental Justice is an interdisciplinary minor that focuses on the differential exposures to environmental burdens and differential access to environmental benefits experienced by diverse human and non-human groups. The minor allows students to explore the social, cultural, economic, and environmental sources of this differential exposure or access.
Food studies is an interdisciplinary minor designed to introduce students to integrative learning experiences across areas of study within food and agriculture.
Marine science (MARS) is an interdisciplinary major, providing students the opportunity to develop knowledge about oceanic processes, organisms, and important intersections of human–ocean systems. Students investigate aspects of the oceans and ocean life through the incorporation of the fields of marine science, biology, environmental/geological science, and environmental studies, supported by a background in other science and math-related courses.
Professor and Chair of Environment and Sustainability, Patrick Hurley, Ph.D., recently traveled to Rome to help the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) update its definition of forest foods.
ALL STUDENTS are invited to the 2026 Ursinus College Graduate School Fair. The Fair will begin at 11:00 a.m. in the Floy Lewis Bakes Field House and will end at 2:30 p.m.
The Parlee Center for Science and the Common Good is excited to welcome Dr. Wil Burns from the Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal at American University as part of our fall 2026 speaker series on “The Human-Nature Nexus.”
Virtual Lecture; campus viewing in Pfahler Hall’s Musser Auditorium
The Parlee Center for Science and the Common Good is excited to welcome Dr. Ngaio Richards from Working Dogs for Conservation as part of our fall 2026 speaker series on “The Human-Nature Nexus.”
