More about the ENVS program
Trinity College's location in the capital of Connecticut offers a wide range of opportunities for the study of a complex urban environment and direct contact with city, state, and federal regulatory agencies.
Although many people equate environmental science with the natural world, most humans live in metropolitan areas. These areas have a tremendous impact on the environment: energy, water, food, housing and transportation. The urban focus of the Environmental Science program is enhanced by opportunities for study in many nearby rural areas such as state and municipal parks. Woods, fields, and streams at these sites provide ideal locations for biological and geological studies and for comparative rural and urban studies.
Study within the major can be structured to meet any of the following objectives:
- Preparation for further graduate study within the sciences
- Development of a rigorous science background from which to pursue graduate-level training in a professional program such as law, planning, medicine, business, or environmental engineering
- A thorough grounding in environmental science as the principal component of a liberal arts education.
- Given the interdisciplinary nature of the major, many students chose to combine environmental science with another major such as biology, chemistry, engineering, economics or public policy and law.
Environmental science merges the natural environment with human actions. We therefore encourage our students to take relevant courses in the social sciences and humanities as well to learn how humans have shaped their environments or, in return, are shaped by the world in which they live. Relevant courses may include classes in public policy and law and environmental economics, but also classes in history or English. Again, students can choose from a large (and often changing) list of relevant courses across a wide range of disciplines to customize the program to their interests and career goals. The Bachelor of Arts option allows students to take even more advanced courses in the social sciences and humanities.
Why should you come to Trinity?
Our program is extremely hands-on. Students spend a good part of their time in the lab, in the community or farther afield, collecting and analyzing real data. Over half of our majors are engaged as research assistants in faculty research projects, ranging from ornithology, biology, environmental chemistry and toxicology to climate change, geology and geophysics.
Our location in Hartford, less than a mile away from the State Capitol, and excellent contacts to Trinity’s Public Policy and Law program allow for an integration of science and policy.
Want to go abroad? No problem! In the past two years 75% of our students spent at least one semester abroad, studying in places like Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Denmark or Tanzania. We work closely with Trinity’s Office of Study Away to make your stay abroad as successful and easy as possible.
