Environmental Studies Major and Minor

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Learn about the the Earth's natural systems and humans' roles within them. Understand the causes of environmental challenges and build skills to solve them. Leave prepared to build more just and sustainable communities.

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Why Pursue Environmental Studies?

Do you care about the future of the environment? Do you want to find ways to address the complex environmental issues facing our planet?

Environmental studies will prepare you to engage communities and find solutions to environmental challenges.

Why Pursue Environmental Studies at Luther?

Decorah—with its woods, prairies, bluffs, and river—is a perfect place to study the environment and sustainability. While you build a deep relationship with this place, you’ll also explore many others—through our global curriculum and robust study-away programs.

Your coursework will draw from the expertise of academic departments and faculty across campus, so that you will gain a comprehensive understanding of environmental issues. You will explore the drivers and potential solutions to the sustainability challenges we face, integrating different perspectives. You will also build area study depth through a senior capstone project.

Your learning will include hands-on projects to help you understand and address environmental and sustainability issues. In the program, you will:

Collaborate with your classmates and community partners to research and propose responses to sustainability challenges in Decorah and on campus.
Learn outdoors and spend time on Luther’s 800+ acres of natural areas.
Experience the interconnections of the rocks, soils, forests, prairies, and insects, and develop your own connection to the land.
Consider how you want to use your own unique strengths and interests to promote a sustainable future through focused career exploration.

Sustainability

Get involved in sustainability! You can take part in ecological restoration events, join Luther’s student-led Environmental Concerns (ECO) club, and sign up for a plot in the community garden. You can also do work-study at Luther’s Center for Sustainable Communities. Sustainability is core to our mission. We consistently rank in the top tier of baccalaureate institutions for campus sustainability.

High-Impact Research

There are many opportunities at Luther to engage in research in environmental studies, usually in collaboration with faculty members. Summer student-faculty research projects have received support from organizations like the National Science Foundation and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Off-Campus Opportunities

While you’ll learn a ton in Decorah, we also encourage you to learn in the wider world. Take part in one of our study-away programs focused on environmental studies. Intern off campus at places like the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa DNR, Upper Explorerland Planning Commission, the city of Decorah, Seed Savers, Nature Conservancy, or Winneshiek Energy District. We help you connect with so many opportunities to apply your studies to the real world!

What You’ll Learn

Core Courses

All students in the environmental studies major build a foundation through core courses in biology, philosophy, earth system science, environmental policy, and sustainability.

Areas of Specialization

Then, you can deepen your skills and find your own path by focusing on one of two different areas within environmental studies.

Major Plan One: Sustainability and Social Change

Starting in fall 2025, we are offering a new sustainability and social change focus area. If you are interested in community organizing and outreach, environmental justice, environmental policy and advocacy, sustainability planning, and environmental public service and governance, then this track is for you.

You will learn about many different approaches to understanding sustainability and leading social change. You can select from courses in anthropology, biology, economics, English, foreign cultures, history, and sociology. You can also take environmental studies courses on topics like Energy and Climate or Environmental Justice and Law.

Major Plan Two: Environmental Science

The study plan in environmental science delves into the many overlapping areas of scientific study required to understand, preserve, or restore an environment. If you are interested in natural resource conservation, ecological restoration, landscape architecture, environmental planning, and sustainable energy, then this track is for you.

You will take coursework in chemistry, biology, geology, and math to build your skills in the science of understanding environmental challenges and developing technical solutions. As of fall 2025, we are adding electives in geographic information systems, microbiology, and more.

Minors

Minors in environmental studies will expose you to basic concepts and skills, pairing well with many other majors offered at Luther.

Sustainability minor: Students completing this interdisciplinary minor will build skills and knowledge to advance sustainability and social change. If you are majoring in a field like international studies, management, or engineering sciences and want to gain experience in sustainability to complement your major, this is a great option for you.

Environmental studies minor: The environmental studies minor is our most interdisciplinary and integrated minor. Drawing from philosophy, political science, earth science, and biology, it provides students multiple lenses for understanding of environmental issues and tools for promoting positive environmental change.

Environmental science minor: This science minor is for students interested in focusing on the science of the environment. With coursework in areas like ecology, soil science, and climate, this minor can add an environmental focus to majors in other science disciplines or in engineering, and is also available to students with majors outside of the sciences.

Curriculum

Careers and Outcomes

A primary goal of the environmental studies program is to prepare you to enter the world, ready to take on a variety of environmental challenges. There are many career paths for people in environmental studies, including environmental education, policy and management, environmental science, and food systems. Our alumni are making an impact in careers across a broad range of organizations.

Career Fields

Strategic communications
Field research
Public affairs
Resource management
Environmental specialist
Logistics and project coordinator
Conservation planning

Employers

US Army Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources
Illinois State Water Survey
US Environmental Protection Agency
Grand Teton National Park
Iowa Soybean Association
Iowa Department of Agriculture’s Mines and Minerals Bureau
Green Iowa
Nature Conservancy

Cole wears a hat and a backpack, standing in front of Valders Hall.

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I would recommend my major because there are a wide range of areas that you can study within the environmental studies degree. There are three different tracks — science, policy, culture and society; and then you can also do a fourth option and pave your own way through the major.

Cole Barrett '24

Environmental studies and Nordic studies major

Blond man with beard and glasses, smiling, in front of solar panels

Environmental studies is an inherently interdisciplinary field, and that’s how it’s taught at Luther, from science to ethics to anthropology. Beyond that, Luther has made an incredible commitment to sustainability, to reach zero emissions by 2030. Luther walks the talk.

Charlie Sylvester '22

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES MAJOR

Learn More About Luther Sustainability

Through my classes and my many other experiences while at Luther, I’ve learned that environmental issues aren’t just about the environment and that we need to look for solutions from a holistic perspective.

Claire Hamilton '19

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES MAJOR

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Hands-On Restoration

Luther students get real-world experience working with a local landowner to restore biodiversity to land that has been formally been grazed and used for agriculture.

three students examine the type of grasses in a field

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Volunteer Corps

Many environmental studies graduates spend a year or two volunteering with various organizations. These opportunities help develop your skills, build relationships, and discover new passions. They prepare you for success in graduate programs or careers, while also providing you the opportunity to give back to society. Each long-term volunteer opportunity is unique, so you can discover one that best matches your interests.

Past Luther graduates have volunteered with the following organizations: