ESM 150

Module 4

1. Overview of PSU
2. ESM is your home
3. Prepare to attend
4. UNST
5. Where you stand
6. Careers
7. Getting Involved
8. General advice
9. Assemble your plan
10. Get started

We have four pieces of advice for optimizing your UNST experience.

1. Choosing UNST courses

If you have a a particular interest in one of the academic areas that is covered by some level of UNST, by all means, pursue your interest. However, many students are met with the dilemma of not being able to choose. Our advice is to choose courses that are complimentary but not overly repetative to your ESM major courses. You cannot take ESM prefix courses for your UNST requirement in any case.

Some SINQs and Clusters that we usually recommend are:

• Community Studies
• Healthy People/Healthy Places
• Leading Social Change
• Design, thinking, innovation, entrepreneuship

Some SINQs and clusters that we do not recommend because there is too much overlap

• Global Environmental Change
• Science in the Liberal Arts

The Environmental Susstainability SINQ and cluster is a special case. Our faculty is intimately involved in designing and offering these courses and we have developed a list of courses within that cluster that are complimentary.

UNST224
SysSci 334
USP 313U
Ec332

2. Embrace the experience

The faculty in UNST are trying to offer interdisciplinary courses that are available to a wide range of students. If you review the learning goals for UNST you will see that the these are not primarily focused on learning facts or content (those are more in the domain of our major). To get the most out of these courses, you need to approach them as an opportunity to hone your writing and communication skills, group work experience, and improve your abiliity to work with the wide range of backgrounds of students in your class. These are are crucial skills for environmental sciences and management professionals. If you try to be fully engaged and contribute to all of these classes it will be good practice.

3. Consider Clusters that might lead to a useful minor

Although you can't use UNST course to fulfill a major degree requirement, they can be used to meet the requirement for a minor. Generally a minor in a related field is not very valuable on the job market, but a complimentary or extended minor might be very useful to your career. We think you should consider the following minors that include courses that could be simultaneously used to meet the Cluster requirement.

Business
System Science
Sustainable Urban Development
Sustainability
Communications
Community Development

4. Consider study abroad, field work or a foreign language.

Some opportunities that the university offers require more planning but are really valuable for some of our students. If you are early in your degree planning you should explore whether you might include taking a term off to study in a foreign country or attend a field work institute in the summer.

Besides being a very enlightening activity, employers state that study abroad experience is very desirable in employees. You learn to be culturally sensitive, adaptable, and take a larger view of the world. PSU offers a wide arrange of study abroad opportunities but unless you already know what you want, I'd like you to look at three types of programs:

1. Short, PSU faculty lead programs: these are the most affordable and usually give you direct PSU credit.
2. Ecology or biology field experiences in other countries such as Costa Rica, Caribbean island nations, or similar. These are rich activities that you just can't get here.
3. Full term abroad in several areas such as Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Europe, Austrailia or New Zealand. These are usually the easiest places to learn how to travel and yet be a student.

Again, to be clear, if you know how to travel or have some burning interest in a particular part of the world, then go for it!