2YC students from a 4YC chair's perspective

Matthew Schwartz, University of West Florida

As chairperson of a four year college department of Environmental Studies, I have two main types of interaction with 2YC students: 1) I have worked directly with 2YC students via a course designed as part of a collaborative ATE research grant and 2) we accept many 2YC students as transfers into University of West Florida. In the aforementioned Aquatic Environmental sciences course, we worked to provide field instruction supplementing my co-PI's classroom lectures related to sampling and analytical methods related to coastal and estuarine systems, while also introducing students to the application of Geographic Information Science (GIS). That project funding has been completed; however, we intend to expand the project to continue its goals in coming years.

As the chairperson of the Department of Environmental studies at University of West Florida, I see transfers from a number of 2YC programs in the region. We have established articulation agreements with one of these 2YC programs with a goal to highlighting academic requirements of the 4YC degree before the students arrive at University of West Florida. I am exploring the idea of conducting dedicated outreach and advising sessions with 2YC programs to explicitly address the requirements for their intended BS in Environmental Studies (particularly those quantitative prerequisites such as Chemistry and Mathematics courses), to recruit students to the BS in Environmental Studies, and to discuss career options related to such a degree.