If you're interested in science—or politics, or art, or philosophy, or architecture, or psychology, or writing—environmental studies might be for you.
The environmental studies program at Bennington, like all areas of study, draws upon the College’s faculty to provide an interdisciplinary perspective at how environmental issues impact the natural and social worlds. How do ethics, politics, and economics overlap with environmental issues? How do aesthetic and artistic perspectives shape our relationship with nature? The core environmental questions are not only or even necessarily scientific—they are social and policy-driven and are integrated across the entire College.
Beyond the classroom, the environmental studies program supports student research and Field Work Term internships, facilitates campus-based sustainability initiatives, and works to expand relationships with local environmental consortia and other institutions. The campus Sustainability Committee, which accepts and reviews proposals for projects like the organic Student Garden, allows students to tackle environmental problems on a local scale.
A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2009 has supported Bennington's Environmental Studies program. The College’s longstanding commitment to sustainability and conservation has earned Bennington a place in the Princeton Review’s first ever Guide to 286 Green Colleges, which was compiled and published in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council.