The success of the Sustainable Environmental Planning and Management(SEPM) Online Graduate Certificate Program continues to grow as the program enters its fourth year. There have been fifteen graduates so far, with another eleven students currently enrolled in the program. Additional faculty have also been welcomed into the program since its founding in 2014. Assistant Research Professor Chadwick Rittenhouse of the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE) coordinates the SEPM Program, which focuses on building professional skills for those currently in sustainable environmental and natural resource positions or eager to learn more about these fields. Students study ecological systems, decision-making processes, communication methods and software-based geospatial tools.
Certificate programs can serve as an introduction to a new career, enhance current job skills and training, or can provide additional knowledge to supplement or build upon prior learning. Rittenhouse specifically designed the curriculum for students possessing varying levels of experience and adopted an online format to accommodate working professionals, especially those returning to academic study after years away from school. The SEPM Program ensures students develop a deeper knowledge of the social, ethical, political and economic systems at work in environmental planning and management while learning how to adopt essential consensus-building and problem-solving skills central to work in land management and environmental decision-making.
