The New York State Department of Education has approved the offering of an associate’s degree in environmental science at JCC’s Jamestown Campus.

The 60-credit hour degree program prepares students to comprehend, evaluate, and analyze contemporary environmental problems at the interface of nature, human institutions, and scientific study. Interdisciplinary explorations and scientific tools and technologies essential for addressing emerging environmental challenges and opportunities are featured.

Students will explore the ethical dimensions of decisions and actions associated with being responsible local and global citizens and gain a better understanding that a more sustainable world will nurture healthier ecosystems, vibrant human communities, and stronger economies.

The program prepares students for transfer into numerous baccalaureate programs such as environmental science, environmental biology, natural resource management, conservation science, forest ecosystem science, fisheries and wildlife biology, natural history, ecology, and others.

“It is critically important to the sustainability and viability of human society, biodiversity, the natural environment, and the life support systems of the planet that humans more closely examine and understand the interdependencies among all living things,” emphasized JCC biology professor Becky Nystrom.

“Individuals must acknowledge and address the human-environment interactions which have seriously threatened or disrupted critical natural processes, and seek an enhanced comprehension of the causes and consequences of these impacts,” she added.

JCC’s environmental science degree, noted Ms. Nystrom, provides critical foundations for well-trained environmental scientists and citizen scientists to meet the urgent and growing environmental challenges of the 21st century and beyond.