The Stony Brook University Sustainability Studies Program offers students an intimate learning experience and a number of great academic and career-development opportunities thanks to the program’s enthusiastic faculty and staff.
As a senior Environmental Design, Policy and Planning major, I can speak from my own experience about how dedicated the professors are, and how many excellent opportunities they offer students not only on campus, but outside of the classroom as well.
In the two-and-a-half years I have been part of the program, I have been given the opportunity to attend exciting events such as the third-annual Global District Energy Climate Awards in New York City and Vision Long Island’s 13th-annual Smart Growth Summit. Events like these have given me first hand experience of a number of different “planning” fields, and I feel that these experiences are very helpful in guiding students toward their future career path.
The Sustainability Studies Program has also offered me the opportunity to study overseas, where I gained valuable and marketable international skills in sustainability. Last winter, I traveled to Costa Rica, an international leader in renewable energy. There, my classmates and I developed and proposed ideas aimed at further improving the country’s sustainability, while also bolstering its economy. It was an invaluable experience to receive feedback about these proposed ideas from my peers, professors and Costa Rican citizens themselves.
In Costa Rica, I nabbed this awesome picture of a sleeping sloth!
Our SBU Sustainability Studies Program Costa Rica Winter 2014 study abroad group at AeroEnergia, a wind-based Costa Rican energy company.
Opportunities like these give students experience outside of the classroom that can give them an edge when beginning their careers or gaining admission into sustainability-related graduate degree programs. Overall, Stony Brook University’s Sustainability Studies Program offers an enriching academic experience and prepares students well for life after graduation.
By Michael Loper
Sustainability Studies Program ’15
Environmental Design, Policy and Planning Major
Thank you Michael for your welcomed and thoughtful contribution to this blog. It is very gratifying to know that we are helping you along your way. All of us in the Sustainability Studies Program want the best for our students. What you have to say really matters. Best wishes in your continuing endeavors and please keep expressing your ideas, whether complimentary, or critical. You help us make ours a better program with your commitment.