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The Urban Environmental Studies Program at BSC

The Urban Environmental Studies Program at BSC

Go green in the big city!

UES Students in the wetlands

A new generation of leaders who understand the complex relationship between human welfare and environmental sustainability will make much-needed strides toward environmental sustainability. With its liberal arts focus and commitment to academic excellence, Birmingham-Southern provides an ideal setting to train socially- and environmentally-literate leaders.

Come study with us and change the world.

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    Program Information

    I. The Major

    The UES Program examines sustainability from environmental, economic, socio-political, and cultural perspectives. Within a liberal arts curriculum, students take more traditional environmental courses from the natural sciences coupled with social sciences and humanities courses. UES majors choose either a BA or BS degree. The UES Program teaches courses based on materials from the American South, Global North, and Global South providing students with local, American, and international experiences. UES students complete a senior capstone course in which they develop an independent research project. The UES Program enrolls about 35 majors and minors with 13 faculty members across eight academic departments. UES students may minor in other departments such as biology, business, chemistry, and mathematics to expand their expertise and skills concentrations. BSC is the only Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) institution that has a 3-2 master’s program with Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. BSC’s location in a mid-sized metropolitan area like Birmingham is an advantage to our students being involved in internships, service learning, and independent research with community partners through the rise3 Program. The Southern Environmental Center and Turkey Creek Nature Preserve provide unique opportunities for the UES Program such as the annual BioBlitz overnight research program. Additionally, the UES Program partners with the E.O. Wilson Center in Freeport, FL providing students opportunities for lab trip weekends to independent study projects only minutes from the Gulf Coast beaches. On campus, UES students are involved in EnAct, the campus environmental group, and the BSC Garden Club. EnAct organizes Green Week events around Earth Day in April as well as the annual Southern Exposures film showing from the Alabama Rivers Alliance. Garden Club manages the campus community garden. Top academic majors are eligible for membership in Kappa Alpha Omicron (KAO) International Environmental Honor Society.

    II. The Curriculum

    • Bachelor of Arts (BA)
      • First and Second Year
        • BI 225
        • EC 202
        • MA 207
        • UES 150
        • UES 160
        • UES 250
      • Third and Fourth Year
        • SO 373
        • SO 376
        • UES 310
        • UES 397
        • UES 470
        • One course from the following:
          • AN/UES 330, EH/GRS 268, EH 325, PL 307, or RE 208
        • Two units from the following:
          • EC 340, UES 230, UES 260, UES 277, 377, or 477, UES 350, UES 370, UES 380
    • Bachelor of Science (BS)
      • First and Second Year
        • BI 115
        • BI 225
        • CH 111 and CH 112 or CH 149
        • EC 202
        • MA 207
        • UES 150
        • UES 160
        • UES 250
      • Third and Fourth Year
        • UES 310
        • UES 397
        • UES 470
        • One course from the following:
          • AN/HON/UES 330, EH/GRS 268, EH 325, PL 307, or RE 208
        • Two units (one must be at the 300-level or higher) from:
          • BI 206, BI 314, BI 411, UES 230, UES 260, UES 277, 377, or 477, or UES 350
    Minor Requirements
    • The following courses are required (5 units):
      • UES 150
      • UES 160
      • UES 310
    • Two units from the following:
      • BI 225
      • BI 314
      • BI 411
      • EC 340
      • EH 325
      • PL 307
      • RE 220
      • SO 373
      • SO 376
      • UES 110
      • UES 230
      • UES 250
      • UES 260
      • UES 277, UES 377, or UES 477
      • UES 350
      • UES 370
      • UES 380
      • UES 397

    III. The Outcome


    UES graduates are employed in government, non-profit, and business. Some majors work in federal, state, and local governments in policy and legal fields. Others work in non-profits promoting environmental practices. In private business, UES majors serve as consultants, technical advisors, and green business entrepreneurs. Typical professional positions include lawyers, urban planners, policy advocates, political consultants, non-profit organizers, and business managers. UES majors succeed in graduate programs. Some enroll directly from BSC while others work for a few years. Those wanting to remain in local environmental programs gained admission to the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB), Samford, and the University of Alabama. Students entered graduate programs at Duke, Rutgers, and the University of Chicago. Students gained admission to law schools including Alabama, Colorado, Cumberland (Samford), George Washington, Loyola (New Orleans), Tulane, Vermont, and Washington & Lee.

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    Internship and Projects

    UES Internships

    UES Internships provide paid summer positions for students to work with environmental organizations to improve environmental policy, address environmental concerns, develop plans for green spaces, and further efforts to protect our rivers and streams. Previous interns have worked at organizations such as the Freshwater Land Trust, Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership, Jones Valley Urban Farm, and Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve in Alabama; Green America in Washington, DC; the Tennessee Clean Water Network in Knoxville, Tennessee; and Technology 20/20 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

    OAre you living in a food desert?utreach and research are critical components of the Urban Environmental Studies program. Many initiatives in Birmingham are underway to improve the livability of our city and reduce our environmental impact. These include constructing LEED-certified buildings, numerous urban redevelopment projects, a growing urban farm initiative, and establishing one of the largest networks of urban parks in the United States.

    Recent Projects

    Birmingham-Southern students participate in a number of environmental projects around the Birmingham area and abroad. The variety of topics covered in the Urban Environmental Studies major allows for a wide array of projects in which students participate. Some of these projects have included:

    • Developing an ecotourism plan for Morgan County, TN
    • Surveying visitor attitudes and perceptions of Turkey Creek Nature Preserve
    • Creating an interactive map of gardens and farmers' markets in Birmingham
    • Launching a pilot program to replant hybrid American Chestnuts in Birmingham
    • Invasive species removal at Ruffner Mountain Nature Center
    • Development of the seed 2 plate curriculum with Jones Valley Urban Farm
    • Using camera traps to document wildlife in a local urban nature preserve
    • Studying endemic endangered fish whose range is confined to only five Birmingham-area springs
    • Documenting the ecology of a rare endemic herb in the mountains of Northeast Alabama
    • Studying amphibian and herbivore ecology with BSC faculty in Costa Rica
    • Comparing water quality and macroinvertebrate abundance between developed and undeveloped creeks
    • Studying seed germination of rare plants
    • Studying the environmental impacts of proposed interstate expansions
    • Creating an inventory of threatened natural areas near Birmingham with a local land trust
    • Encouraging retro-fitting of campus buildings for energy conservation 

    Recent January Term Courses

    At the fallsEvery January, BSC students can expand their studies outside the classroom during Exploration Term. Several UES-related Exploration term courses have been offered recently, and include: 

    • Experiencing the City: An Exploration of Urban Land-Use Policies
    • Amazon to Andes: Experience the Peruvian Rainforest
    • Science, Public Policy, and the Environment: A Service-Learning Trip to the Everglades
    • Environmental Mathematics
    • Service-Learning Interim in Ecuador with the Foundation for Sustainable Development
    • Coral Reef Ecology and Dolphin Behavior
    • Costa Rica: Are Ecotourism and Sustainability Compatible?
    • Costa Rica: Sustainability, Spirituality, and Service
    • Exploring the Galapagos Islands: Wildlife, Ecology, and Conservation
    • Disasters and Mass Emergencies: The Politics of Vulnerability Response, Relief, and Reconstruction
    • Discovering the Pacific Northwest: A City/Nature Exploration
    • Investigations of fish populations comparing coastal and montane habitats in the SE United States
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    Faculty


    Dr. Duncan & students

    A truly interdisciplinary program, the faculty members teaching core courses for the UES major span the entire campus and include the following:

    UES Coordinator

    William G. Holt
    Associate Professor of UES & Sociology
    SSC 021
    226.4834
    [email protected]

    UES Affiliated Faculty

    Mark Meade
    Assistant Lecturer of UES
    SSC 020
    226.4893
    [email protected]

    Andrew Gannon
    Professor of Biology
    SSC 230
    226.4899
    [email protected]

    Vince Gawronski
    Professor of Political Science
    Harbert 314
    226.4836
    [email protected]

    Kathleen Greer
    Associate Professor of Economics
    Harbert 320
    226.4800
    [email protected]

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    Alumni Profiles

    Molly McDaniel '21 is currently working in Pensacola, Florida to increase resilience throughout the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Watersheds. The journey to this point was a rich one thanks to the rigorous interdisciplinary academic environment that Birmingham-Southern fosters for its students.

    “I could tell from my very first week of classes at BSC that there was always more to the story. I was encouraged to dig deeper and explore all the ways that seemingly unrelated topics may be intricately connected.”

    Molly sought ways to add depth to her college experience by seeking out these subtle intersections and weaving them into her coursework whenever possible. Even though Birmingham is hundreds of miles from the coast, she attempted to incorporate her passion for coastal ecology into most of her assignments. This approach allowed her to better appreciate the many ways that people and the environment they live in are influenced by one another and pushed her to learn more about the historical context that led us to where we are today.

    After graduation, McDaniel enrolled in the Master of Professional Science program at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Sciences for a degree in Coastal Zone Management. While in Miami, Molly completed courses on a variety of topics, including Coastal Law, Marine Conservation Biology, and Citizen and Participatory Science.

    Now she has taken what she’s learned through the years and begun applying it to her work with the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program (PPBEP). In just a few short months, her work has involved surveying residents to assess their perceptions of climate-related risks, participating in education and outreach programming, and leading the development of PPBEP’s Environmental Justice Workgroup to develop a strategy that ensures EJ considerations are prioritized throughout the watershed.

    “I am grateful to my professors and peers at BSC for creating an environment that broadened my horizons and shaped me into who I am today. BSC offers so many opportunities to enrich your undergraduate years, whether through research or travel or book club discussions, and I’m proud that I got to be a part of it.”

    Contact her at [email protected]


    Abby-Brown.jpgAbby Brown ‘20 is no stranger to conservation, communications, and organizing. While obtaining her double major in Urban Environmental Studies degree and Biology, she was a collegiate athlete, serial volunteer with conservation organizations like Coosa Riverkeeper, and Vice President of Community Service within her sorority. After she graduated in 2020, she completed the Tomorrow’s Leaders College Program.

    Abby, a Georgia native, is now able to marry her love for the natural world and people in her career. After completing her degree at Birmingham-Southern, Abby spent a year of service through the AmeriCorps VISTA at Coosa Riverkeeper serving as a Development Coordinator. She built infrastructure within the organization’s membership, planned multiple successful fundraisers, and collected data for their bacteriological water quality monitoring program, Swim Guide.

    After her year of service, Abby was promoted to become Coosa Riverkeeper’s Outreach Manager in 2021. She now oversees the organization’s social media, communications, events, and community outreach initiatives while supporting Coosa Riverkeeper’s programs and fieldwork. She has worked to champion the environmental education program, CREEK (Coosa River Environmental Education for Kids) which works to educate and inspire under-served youth about why conservation is important to their health and the health of the river. She has also worked to create our Tributary Board, a Junior Board that is composed of young professionals who are committed to river conservation and protection.

    “I am so thankful for my career path thus far and for the work, I have been able to accomplish. The UES program gave me the knowledge and work ethic to be thrown into the world of conservation biology right after college and has allowed me to make connections with the people in our state that need to be educated about conservation and our natural resources the most.”

    Contact Abby at [email protected]


    Tadric-Williams.jpg

    During my undergraduate studies in 2014-2018, I concentrated on Urban Environmental Studies with a focus on comprehending transitions between nature and modern technology. I began to realize the need for balance amongst humanity before a negative domino or ripple effect occurs. My senior thesis examines soil revitalization in Birmingham, assessing the ways Green Infrastructure creates healthy positive cycles in the environment.

    After graduating from Birmingham-Southern College with a degree in UES and Business, I served in the U.S. Military while completing a certificate in AutoCAD from Northwest Shoals Community College. I made a big plate for myself in search of opportunity shortly after I accepted an Urban Planning internship at Madison, Ala. City Hall while joining a high school in Bessemer, Ala. called BuildUp teaching students how to revitalize unlivable homes.

    My goal is to develop self-sufficient villages/communities with simple Green Technology efficiently, which led me to ICON 3D Printing Technology to develop shelters. My day-to-day work involved setting up a printer, mixing machine, and repeatedly printing structures to conduct research such as testing the durability of the walls to everyday living conditions. Now I am currently in Cebu, Philippines obtaining a Master's Degree in Urban Planning at The University of San Carlos. 

    The UES program led me to comprehend the modern-day reversed-engineered world and a path to make urban centers environmentally friendly. With UES studies such as Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities combined with NAGA, Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec permaculture designs. I plan to implement these concepts into my urban planning work, I seek to redevelop green technology that creates communities where people live together harmoniously with Mother Nature and Father Time in the process of rediscovering ancient methods to reach our highest self that humanity has fallen from." - Tadric Williams '18


    Will-Owens.pngWhile attending BSC, Will Owens ’14 interned at the Nature Conservancy. The experience inspired him to pursue a career in government to enact the changes needed to support healthy communities and ecologies. After graduation, spent a year with Americorps supporting a Community Development Financial Institution in his home State of Delaware. He attended Rutgers University and earned his master’s in Public Policy and City and Regional Planning with a concentration in housing and community development.

    For two years, he was a Fiscal Analyst for the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services where he conducted research, drafted bills, and staffed New Jersey State Senate hearings. He worked with legislators and their staff to draft legislation to support K-12 education in the State. In 2020, Will made the cross country move to California where he’s been working in state government. First for the California Department of Education, and most recently with the Department of Housing and Community Development’s Budget Office.

    “At BSC, I came to realize that public service, specifically working in government, has the potential to create widespread impact. Through my undergraduate courses, I learned that nature and outdoor spaces are inextricably linked to how communities grow and thrive. I keep this lesson in mind wherever I go."


    Helping preserve nature and biodiversity

    UES-Yeager.png During his urban environmental studies at Birmingham-Southern, Charles Yeager ’10 took every opportunity possible to enhance his understanding of Alabama’s incredible natural wonders through internships with the Freshwater Land Trust and Desoto State Park, as well as field studies in Longleaf Pine ecology, aquatic ecology, and herpetology.

    In 2008, Yeager completed a course with the National Outdoor Leadership School in Baja, Mexico. His BSC senior research thesis, “Maternal Provisioning Trade-Off Strategies of Agalychnis callidryas” was published in the Journal of Herpetology in 2013.

    After completing his degree, he spent two years as a field biologist for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assessing oyster populations along the Gulf Coast following the Deep-water Horizon oil spill. Since 2012, Yeager has worked as the resident manager of the Turkey Creek Nature Preserve (TCNP) in Pinson, Ala. In addition to the day-to-day maintenance of the preserve, he directs the preserve’s Environmental Education Programs, which reach more than 6,000 participants every year. While at TCNP, Yeager has worked to champion environmental awareness through restoration projects, municipal partnerships, and community outreach development. He has also worked to improve the visitor experience at TCNP through the expansion of the preserve’s hiking trails and public programming

    “The incredible opportunities for research, internships, and facility support that I received as an urban environmental studies major at Birmingham-Southern are the reason why I am able to work in a field I love today,” said Yeager, who is a native of Irondale.

    Contact him at [email protected].


    Influencing coastal conservation

      LaceyLeaptrott2.jpgRegulating activities that have the potential to impact Alabama’s coastal resources are the focus of Lacey Genard Leaptrott’s work.

    Leaptrott is a project manager for coastal permitting projects in Mobile’s Baldwin County. The projects mostly include permits for structures in coastal waters and dredging or filling of coastal wetlands. She conducts site inspections, manages projects, writes reports and certification letters, and attends conferences. 

    She graduated from BSC with a degree in urban environmental studies in 2010. Afterward, Leaptrott enrolled in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), where she completed a master’s in environmental science.

    “The challenging interdisciplinary course work at Birmingham-Southern definitely prepared me for graduate school,” said Leaptrott. “The invasive crayfish field collection and research I conducted under Dr. Megan Gibbons for my senior project was a contributing factor in me receiving a graduate research assistantship at UTC.”

    At UTC, her thesis was on the spatiotemporal distributions of the native longear sunfish ( Lepomis megalotis ) and invasive redbreast sunfish ( L. auritus ) in the Tennessee River drainage, in which she analyzed data from the 1940s through 2011. Leaptrott also worked as a teaching assistant at UTC for Biology I & II labs and an Ichthyology course. During summers, she was a contract assistant biologist with the City of Chattanooga, where she performed stream and biological assessments as part of a post-stream restoration study. 

    In January 2014, Leaptrott was offered a job as an environmental scientist for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) in Montgomery. She was part of the Aquatic Assessment Unit and conducted water quality surveys, biological assessments ( macroinvertabreates and fishes), habitat assessments, and fish tissue sampling throughout the entire state of Alabama.

    “I also collected and managed field data, wrote water quality reports, assisted with database development, and attended many workshops/ trainings/conferences,” she said. “I became a senior scientist quickly due to my graduate degree and experience.”

    In May of 2017, Leaptrott got married and transferred to her current job at ADEM’s coastal program in Mobile.

    “The immense amount of writing and public speaking required at BSC helped me to thrive in graduate school and now in my career.”

    Contact her at [email protected].


    Analyzing the impact of environmental regulations

    Sam-Wilson.jpg

    During his undergraduate studies, Sam Wilson ’11, through various exposures and inspirations, began to realize the remarkable potential of education to drive change for the environment. 

    After graduating from BSC with a degree in urban environmental studies, Wilson moved to Olympia, Wash., to pursue a masters of environmental studies at The Evergreen State College. He graduated in 2014 with a thesis that focused on GHG life-cycle assessment of transportation infrastructure and regional planning policy in the Pacific Northwest. Shortly after this, he began working for the Washington State Department of Commerce as a research assistant, focusing on land use and environmental planning, municipal finance, and legislative analysis.

    In 2015, he took a position with the Washington State Department of Ecology and currently works as a regulatory analyst with the agency’s Governmental Relations Office. His day-to-day work involves environmental and economic policy research and analysis for agency rulemaking, proposed legislation, and environmental permits. His portfolio spans many topics, ranging from climate change mitigation to oil spill reduction to killer whale preservation. In his previous role at Ecology, Sam worked as the rulewriter or project manager on Washington’s Clean Air Rule, the state’s “cap-and-reduce” GHG reduction policy that applies to certain large emitters in the state.

    “The UES Program prepared me for a career in environmental policy in many ways,” he said. “The structure of the program somewhat mirrors the ‘ triple-bottom line’ concept in sustainability, immersing students in natural sciences, social sciences, and philosophy and literature concurrently. This approach gave me the opportunity to not only understand the functions of nature and human ecology, but the intrinsic value that lies within all things.”

    Contact him at [email protected].

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    Student Profiles

    Student engagement with community revitalization

    Chaise-Sanders.jpg

    Chaise Sanders found a new perspective of her hometown through her internship with REV Birmingham.

    “Being able to work with REV Birmingham over the summer was an honor and a goal of mine for several years,” said Sanders, a junior business major minoring in urban environmental studies. “I was able to gain a new appreciation for my hometown and revitalization efforts that are quickly making Birmingham one of the greatest cities in the South.”

    REV Birmingham is an organization that aims to improve economic development by helping create dynamic commercial districts within the city of Birmingham. Among her projects with REV, Sanders helped develop a survey that will heavily influence the Five Points South masterplan in terms of revitalization, collected property values to help make the central business district of downtown into a CAP bid district, and participated in charrettes (collaborative session) with other local firms to create renovations for 20th Street—one of downtown Birmingham's most prominent thoroughfares and shopping streets.

    "As a student minoring in UES, my professors have helped me to appreciate all aspects of the environment,” she said. “My generation has the power to protect our precious ecosystems while building some of the greatest, sustainable cities the world has experienced.”

    Although many of her days were spent either analyzing data or walking around communities to obtain resident input on revitalization efforts, she said there were many perks. One was receiving free food as a secret shopper for REV's pop-up restaurant in the Pizitz Food Hall and attending preview parties for Birmingham Restaurant Week.

    “I wouldn't trade the time spent at REV for anything,” Sanders said. “It allowed me to explore my interests and passions and grow my network.”


    Monitoring water quality at the Cahaba

     Caroline-Santropadre-resized.jpgCaroline Santopadre’s internship with Cahaba Riverkeeper as a swim guide last summer consisted of doing the same thing over and over again.

    Starting the first week in June, Santopadre and other volunteers would go to various recreational access points along the Cahaba River to collect data such as total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and specific conductance, and to take samples of the site’s water to be tested in a lab for E. coli. The data, published on the Swim Guide app/website for the public to utilize, determined whether the site was considered to be unsafe for swimming.

    Individually, she took on a second project sampling sections of Buck Creek in Alabaster. She collected the same data—with the exception of E. coli—four times a week at five sites along the creek, which is a a tributary of the Cahaba River. The creek was selected because it passes through Carmeuse Lime & Stone’s facility, and when sampled previously, was found to have an extremely high pH level.

    “I believed this may have been indicative of excessive lime sediment pollution,” said Santopadre, a senior urban environmental studies major from Mandeville, La. “Calcium carbonate, the active ingredient in lime, also has a high pH.”

    To find out if it may have been related to the operations of the Carmeuse facility, she tested water from one site above the property line, along with four sites below the property line, and compared the creek’s normal data to the readings of the water that had passed through the Carmeuse property.

    “My internship at Cahaba Riverkeeper reinforced many aspects of my UES studies that I have learned in the classroom such as environmental regulations, issues with sedimentary pollution, and field work data collection,” she said. “It gave me the opportunity to apply these concepts to a real-world situation occurring right now in the Birmingham area.”


    Integrating technology into river keeper initiative

    Williams,-Tadric-Resized.jpg“River conditions fluctuate on a daily basis and they change drastically during rain or pollution incidents,” said Tadric Williams, a senior urban environmental studies major from Florence, Ala. “If problems in areas were spotted through the Coosa River, then we could focus in on those areas and pursue restoration.”

    Williams spent last summer interning with the Coosa Riverkeeper, a citizen-based river conservation group that works to protect, restore, and promote the Coosa River in Alabama. Through this experience, he learned first-hand the importance of water quality to public health.

    For two months, Williams worked with other interns to conduct weekly water quality samples and search for E. coli contamination. His big project with the organization, though, was producing a digital map for the users of the river that covers the facilities, quality of fish, recreation, and the resources that are available.

    The organization’s printed map, called a Fish Guide, helps users of the Coosa River to find marinas, bait shops and boat ramps. The guide also measures mercury in fish and lists issues of environmental injustice at the local and state level. Currently, there are 26 fish consumption advisories on the river as a result of PCB and mercury contamination. Though it is not illegal to eat fish from areas with advisories, it is highly discouraged, he said.

    Williams polished the map and converted it to a digital form for the website as well as an app for cellphone users. The digital map includes water quality and eatable fish on the Coosa River.

    “With technology today, most will have access to this app, making it reliable and useful while they’re on the river,” said Williams. “However, for those who do not have access to the app, Coosa Riverkeeper will keep fighting to put signs up and keep polluters away.”

    Williams said his internship helped him to put into practice the knowledge and skills he has gained in the classroom at BSC.

    “Interning with Coosa Riverkeeper was a great experience that I will never forget,” he said.

Dr. William  Holt
Associate Professor/Coordinator of Urban Environmental Studies
Birmingham-Southern College
900 Arkadelphia Road
Box 549022
205/226-4834
[email protected]

Community Foundation of Greater BirminghamThe Urban Environmental Studies program is made possible in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.