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Sustainability Studies

Program Year (2022-2023)

About the Program

The Sustainability Studies Certificate program is designed to broaden and deepen students' understanding of the interconnected nature of the comprehensive social, economic, and environmental transformations of the 21st Century. This course of study will provide students with an interdisciplinary body of knowledge that focuses on the problems human civilization faces as well as the solutions and strategies that will lay the groundwork for a sustainable future. Students will develop leadership skills that inspire cooperation and mutual respect, and facilitiate innovative, durable, and sustainable pathways for social and personal change, economic security and prosperity, and environmental restoration.

Students who complete the Sustainability Studies Certificate program will be well preparared to make sound career and lifestyle choices that support and promote a satisfying and sustainable world for all living beings - now and into the indefinite future. The Certificate in Sustainability Studies will increase the marketability of students who go directly into the workforce, and will enrich the knowledge set of students who continue their education in sustainability related fields at the university level and beyond.


Program Requirements

For current program requirements -> 2023-2024

Program Code: SUSTAINABILITY.CC

Type: Local

General Education: None

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this program, the student will be able to:

  • Identify how current social, economic, and environmental problems affect their individual lives, the lives of people in other parts of the world, and the lives of future generations.

  • Define sustainability, evaluate the sustainability of particular systems and practices, and analyze the political and cultural challenges of sustainability implementation.

  • Recognize the fundamental impacts of humans, including commerce and attitudes, on the earth's systems.

  • Evaluate the interdependencies and long-term thinking necessary to grow the world economy while also protecting environmental resources.

  • Utilize critical thinking to develop a point of view regarding the problems and potential solutions for providing adequate yields of nutrient dense food and potable water for a growing global population, both in developing and developed countries.

  • Discuss and write about the ways in which fields such as environmental ethics, ecology, sociology, technology and others interconnect in Sustainability Studies.

  • Develop ideas to create common ground and promote the principles of sustainability to diverse groups of people.

  • Develop a knowledge base to enable them to choose lifestyles and careers that will promote sustainable principles.

Click Here for Program Map

Required courses:
14 Units

Contacts

Heather Valle, Chair
(530) 895-2553

Department Office: LRC 304
(530) 895-2471

Counseling and Advising:
(530) 895-2378

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