| "I am fascinated by the complex nature of environmental problems and how they are tackled." | |
| I chose environmental sciences because I am fascinated by the complex nature of environmental problems and how they are tackled. I am especially passionate about the points where science and policy intersect. Environmental Sciences is a very inter-disciplinary major. Besides fundamental science courses, I have taken courses in various departments, including political science, geography, statistics and civil engineering. My favorite classes have been Ecosystems and Ecotoxicology, Environmental Law, and the Professional Linkage Seminars I have taken. My classes have inspired me to consider a career in environmental law. At Northwestern I’ve been able to apply what I have learned in the classroom to other activities, such as SEED, the environmental group on campus. I also went to work on a farm in Mexico and in urban gardens in Seattle through ASB (Alternative Student Breaks). I even did an independent research project on air pollution in Poland, where I had the opportunity to travel for two months to learn about the country’s system of air pollution monitoring and enforcement firsthand.Senior year, I was able to choose between either writing a senior thesis on a topic of my choice, or to participate in an engineering project in the community. This is precisely the best aspect of environmental sciences at Northwestern:depending on your interests and strengths, you can custom-craft your course load to suit you. After you get the basic science down, you can either continue into more rigorous science, or you can veer toward more policy-oriented classes, like Environmental Economics and Environmental Law. Either way, you walk away with a well-rounded and balanced undergraduate education. |
Tiffany Grobelski |
| "I realized that there are many opportunities to learn about, and learn how to repair and prevent further damage to our fragile environment." | |
Nirav Shah |
My name is Nirav N. Shah and I am currently a Junior here at Northwestern in the College of Arts & Sciences. I am dual-majoring in Environmental Science and Psychology and am pre-med as well. I was born and partially raised in India and so have a firsthand look on how rapid development and industrialization has an impact upon our ecosphere. Living in the United States I realized that there are many opportunities to learn about, and learn how to repair and prevent further damage to our fragile environment. World class universities like NU make it possible to have the resources and know-how to put the tools necessary to do just that into our hands. I plan on going to medical school after graduation, but I know that my environmental science training will always help me in the future. In fact it already has, I was selected last summer for NASA's Spaceflight and Lifesciences Training Program down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I conducted environmental science & hydroponics research with NASA scientists and attended daily lectures by astronauts, engineers, and scientists. We were using a space-tested hydroponics system to see if we could use remote sensing instruments in order to find the most optimum conditions for crops to grow and also to detect illness in plants before it became visible. I hope that with this foundation, and my future medical training I will eventually be accepted into the Astronaut Corps. I am currently working on a research project with the Art Insitute of Chicago in conjunction with NU's McCormick school of Engineering to design an environmental chamber that will be used to test pigments and how/why they decay in order to facilitate restoration work on Seurat's masterpiece "Sunday at La Grande Jatte". |
| "I have been fortunate enough to benefit from numerous extra-curricular research opportunities here in Chicago and abroad." | |
| I chose the Environmental Sciences program above all for its support of interdisciplinary research and extra-curricular learning opportunities. I found that the biological sciences and chemistry departments left me with little room to pursue my interests in political science and economics. The Environmental Sciences program, on the other hand, offered me the opportunity to build a solid foundation in math and the natural sciences before expanding my academic horizons to include real-world applications of the scientific models I learned in Environmental Biology and World Biogeography. I have been fortunate enough to benefit from numerous extra-curricular research opportunities here in Chicago and abroad. In summer 2004, I earned a National Sciences Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF–REU) grant to pursue independent research on the effects of human intervention on the reproductive success of threatened prairie orchids at the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG). In fall of 2004, I learned first-hand about the potentially devastating cycles of drought and rural poverty facing many semi-arid regions in Sub-Saharan Africa through a semester abroad in South Africa, where I completed a month-long research project on community-based conservation at Kruger National Park. With the help of several Undergraduate Research Grants, I returned to Africa in summer 2005 to interview rural agriculturalists living near Mt. Elgon in Kenya about their own experiences of state-sponsored conservation.Thanks to the new Policy track in the Environmental Sciences major, I was able to incorporate my new interests into my curriculum at NU by adding courses like Environmental Economics and the Politics of Nature to my schedule. |
Mercedes Stickler |
| "I realized how much I loved the interdisciplinary nature of the program and the sense of holistic learning it provided me." | |
Panah Bhalla |
I first considered the environmental sciences major because I have always been interested in environmental issues, but had never gotten the chance to study them in school. Once I begun my coursework, I realized how much I loved the interdisciplinary nature of the program and the sense of holistic learning it provided me. My interdisciplinary skills were particularly useful during my semester abroad in Mali, West Africa where I integrated the themes of gender and development into my environmental independent study project. I was also able to apply the knowledge gained from Environmental Sciences to the laboratory work I performed for Professor Kimberly Gray's Wetlands Project. As a graduating senior, I hope to pursue a career in international sustainable agriculture and eventually work for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. |
| "I saw that I could spend my time learning to take care of the environment myself." | |
| I have always been an outdoors sort of person. As a kid, my family would travel to any National Park we could find. We made it a competition to see who could get to the most in acertain amount of time. I was also a Boy Scout, and that gave me a good understanding of how important it is to take care of nature. When I got to Northwestern, I saw that I could spend my time learning to take care of the environment myself. I plan on becoming an environmental lawyer at some point, so I can take saving the environment into my own hands. The Environmental Sciences program is especially good at Northwestern because it is a great combination of the physical and socialsciences. For every course there is available in the chemistry or biology areas of Environmental Science, there is an equally interesting course available on the policy side through political science or psychology. I didn't want to focus on one specific topic the whole time I was here at Northwestern, and the Environmental Science program gave me an opportunity to dabble in a little bit of everything. I am involved in the Northwestern Marching Band (NUMB) as a tuba player. I also run triathlons, play piano, and have danced in DM for 3 years. |
Patrick Joyce |
| "For me it was a perfect balance of being able to pick and choose classes that fit my interests." | |
| I'm interested in the link between the environment and human health. I will be attending medical school next year so I wanted an undergraduate major that I could combine both my medical/science interest with my love for the environment. The reason that the Environmental Science program was so attractive to me was its flexibility in choosing classes. What I really wish I could have done was environmental engineering, but I couldn't fit all the requirements into 3 years. So instead, I was able to utilize the Environmental Science program by taking all the engineering classes that were offered. For me it was a perfect balance of being able to pick and choose classes that fit my interests. Through my interests in envsci I was able to spend the summer doing researching in an environmental lab in Dresden, Germany, which was amazing. I was also able to do my senior thesis on a community-based environmental problem that involved the restoration of a marsh system impacted by contamination from a neighboring hazardous waste facility. |
Sara Patrawala |
