Geography and Environmental Sustainability

Program Level: Pre-Majors/Transfer

Department: Social Sciences

Institute: Science & Technology

College: NVC

Geography and Environmental Sustainability Courses Links of Interest Faculty & Staff Labs Apply Now

About the Program

There are two pre-majors in this discipline: Environmental Science and Geography. This program is designed to help prepare students to transfer to a university and major in geography or environmental science.

What will I learn?

Our courses provide introductions to geographical and environmental concepts related to:

The Earth’s physical systems (ex. weather and climate, landforms, atmosphere, hydrosphere, etc.)
Relationships between humans and the environment (ex. place, globalization, culture, language, religion, etc.)

Relationships between regions (ex. trade, economic development, conflict, etc.)
The science and policy of global and regional environmental issues (ex. pollution, climate change, sustainability, etc.)

What can I do with this course of study?

These areas of study will prepare you for careers in government, non-profits, and private organizations with job titles such as:

Urban planner
Environmental regulator
Transportation planner
Environmental planner
Emergency management coordinator
Water resource specialist
Fish and wildlife manager
and many job titles in the energy sector.

The occupational outlook for these fields based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016) include:

11% growth (faster than the average for all occupations)
Median pay of $68,900/year or $33/hour

What is special about this program?

Our GEOG courses cross over between the Social Sciences core (GEOG 1302 and GEOG 1303) and the Natural and Physical Science core (GEOG 1301).

• The GEOG courses will track you directly into a Geography and Environmental Sustainability BA degree at UTSA.
• The ENVR courses, while not in the NVC core, will track directly into an Environmental Science BS degree at UTSA.
Please see the Transfer Advising Guides for additional courses required for these pre-majors leading to degrees at UTSA.

The skills you will learn in our courses include:

Environmental research
Working in diverse groups
Oral and written communication
Project-based work
Critical thinking
Information literacy
Adventure Science opportunities for environmental fieldwork and study abroad immersion field work (contingent upon course offerings).

Degrees and Certificates
Associate of Arts Associate of Science

Transfer Advising Guides
Geography - AA to BA - Texas State University (TxST) 2019-2020 Geography (Multiple Majors) - AA to BS - Texas State University (TxST) 2019-2020 Geography and Environmental Sustainability - AA to BA - The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) 2017-2018 Environmental Science - AS to BS - The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) 2017-2018