BA Environmental Studies and Sustainability

Program Details

• Live What You Learn

  • Exciting, résumé-building internships with leading environmental organizations
  • Analytical courses that provide hands-experience in biology, ecology, chemistry, calculus, environmental policy, ethics, economics, environmental sustainability, and research methods
  • Year-long research projects on a topic developed in collaboration with faculty and outside collaborators
  • Travel courses on tropical marine biology, which include 10 days of field research in Belize
  • Travel courses on social justice and community service, which include 10 days of research and service in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region of the United States
  • International summer internships and research programs in destinations like Cost Rica and Panama

• Career Opportunities

  • Nonprofit organizations such as the Conservation League of Voters, the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society, and many others
  • State and federal agencies such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, United States Fish and Wildlife, New Hampshire (NH) Department of Environmental Services, NH Fish and Game, NH Department of Transportation, NH Public Utilities Commission, and many others
  • Wastewater Operations
  • Solid Waste Management
  • Environmental Consulting
  • Sustainability Coordination
  • Environmental Education

Faculty

• James Newcomb

  Professor, Biology and Health Science and Co-Director of Center for Undergraduate Science Research
  Office: Science Building 116C, Henniker Campus
  Phone: 603.428.2374
  Email: jnewcomb@nec.edu
  Professional website: sites.google.com/view/newcomblab

  Awards and Recent Press

  • Recent grants include a $160,000 grant from National Institutes of Health/INBRE to study specific cellular junctions in neurons, in both mammalian and invertebrate preparations.
  • Recent publications include a paper in Integrative Organismal Biology, reporting on the distribution and roles of a peptide neurotransmitter in a sea slug (Watson et al, 2020).

  Educational Background
  PhD in Biology, Georgia State University
  MS in Zoology, University of New Hampshire
  BS in Zoology, University of New Hampshire
  BS in Chemistry and Physics, Keene State College

  Research Interests
  My lab investigates the physiological mechanisms underlying behavior. Our latest projects include studies on cellular junctions, circadian rhythms, extraocular photoreception, non-invasive neural stimulation, and regeneration.

  Bio
  James Newcomb has been a professor at NEC since 2006. In 2019, he also became co-director of NEC’s Center for Undergraduate Science Research. He has maintained an externally funded research lab since 2010, during which time (as of 2020), he had obtained over $800,000 in extramural grants. As of 2020, he had published a total of 19 peer-reviewed publications (cited over 800 times), including 13 NEC students as co-authors, and been a co-author on 130 presentations at research conferences. He has also coauthored chapters for two different books. He is an Associate Editor for the journal Integrative Organismal Biology and Chair of the Division for Neurobiology, Neuroethology, and Sensory Biology of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Beyond the confines of post-secondary academia, he is also an elected School Board member for John Stark Regional High School.

• Michele Jurgens

  Visiting Assistant Professor, Business Administration
  Office: Henniker Campus
  Phone: 603.428.2328
  Email: mjurgens@nec.edu

  Educational Background
  PhD, Bentley University
  MBA, INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France
  BA, University of California at Berkeley

  Research Interests
  Dr. Jurgens has studied and co-authored a book on the service design and delivery strategies of European companies and multinationals. Total Customer Satisfaction: Lessons from 50 European Companies was published by Pitman/Financial Times (Irwin in the U.S.) and has been translated into at least eight languages for sale across the world.

  More recently, Dr. Jurgens has published peer-reviewed articles on the topic of sustainability and the strategies companies use to successfully (or unsuccessfully) manage relations with stakeholders. One example is her study of BP’s management of stakeholder relations during the Deepwater Horizon crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. She has also collaborated on the development of financial and managerial accounting tutorials, cases, and programs for online learning with colleagues at Harvard Business School.

  Bio
  Dr. Jurgens teaches sustainability, ethics, and international management in the undergraduate Management programs at NEC. She has coordinated the yearly Shark Tank competition at NEC; is an advisor to the DECA Club; and enjoys working with students to develop their interests in international travel, new businesses, and sustainable innovation.

  Connected with Harvard University since 2005, she currently teaches general management, business ethics, and financial accounting to business professionals enrolled in Harvard Extension and Harvard Summer programs. She previously developed executive education programs at Harvard Business School for the leadership teams of major global corporations.

  While a resident of France for nearly 20 years, Dr. Jurgens was an executive with the ACCOR Group, one of the world’s largest conglomerates in the services and hospitality industry. At ACCOR, she was part of the leadership team of Compagnie des Wagons-Lits, an ACCOR subsidiary with 25,000 people in eight European countries that she helped rescue and turn profitable. She also led the project to develop the service design and marketing identity for ACCOR’s fledging ETAP Hotel (since renamed IBIS Budget) and subsequently directed global marketing for the IBIS brand.

Degree Requirements