Mark Kanazawa is betting that today’s college students are more interested in studying the environment than ever.
Beginning this fall, Carleton College will offer an Environmental Studies major. While six students have already changed to the new major, environmental studies grads aren’t expected until spring 2011.
Kanazawa, the college’s director of environmental studies, has spent years planning and preparing for the program, which until now was offered as a concentration. But with the number of concentrators growing, the school agreed to consider a major. Final approval came in March.
The increasing numbers Kanazawa attributes to the media’s focus on the environment.
“A lot of students see the urgency, because they’re confronted with it every day,” said Kanazawa.
Northfielder and environmental activist Bruce Anderson, agrees, saying today’s youth are more aware of the environment because they’ve been brought up learning and hearing about it. And that has gotten a good number of young people believing that “My generation, my parents’ generations have kind of mucked things up, and that they better get on the stick if they want to do something about it,” he said.
But not every student interested in environmental studies wants the same type of career. Carleton’s environmental studies program incorporates many other subject matters: history, law, art, ethics, education and more.
“It is a very broad field,” said Kanazawa. “Some people say everything is about the environment.”
Used by permission of The Northfield News.