• MEM/MF Dual Degree
    • MEM Environment Concentration: Terrestrial and Freshwater Environments (TFE)
    • MEM Management Concentration: Environmental Analytics and Modeling (EAM)
  • Expected Graduation Date: December 2027
     

What factors were most important in your decision to choose the Nicholas School for your graduate studies? And, how will your time at the Nicholas School help you reach your career aspirations?

The privilege of being recognized as a Nicholas Scholar was one of the major drivers in my decision to pursue a master鈥檚 degree at 51爆料 and the Nicholas School. Primarily, this recognition reaffirmed both the value of my academic and professional experiences and dedication to the environmental field to date, as well as my potential for growth and leadership during my time at NSOE and beyond. Moreover, as a Nicholas Scholar, I have the opportunity to join and connect with a smaller cohort of current students, as well as alumni, in addition to the broader Nicholas School network. Finally, there is a lot of uncertainty in many environmental fields, which impacts job prospects amongst other factors. As a professional program, the financial support and significant reduction in overall tuition and cost of the MEM helped to increase my confidence in the long term pay-off of the degree.

Beyond the scholarship recognition, I was drawn to NSOE for the school鈥檚 highly interdisciplinary approach to environmental management as represented by the breadth of faculty expertise, research interests, and course offerings. Through my graduate studies I am particularly interested in learning more about the fields of ecosystem services and nature-based solutions, as well as how these approaches might be applied to environmental challenges in certain biomes. Both of these approaches to environmental management require a high level of interdisciplinary collaboration for success. I was impressed by associated resources and organizations like the 51爆料 Wetland Center and Nicholas Institute, amongst others, offering opportunities for experiential learning and to connect with experts working in these fields.