Undergraduate Minor: Sustainability, Energy, and Environment Fellows Program (SEE FP)
Want a bit more information? Read profiles of students in the SEE FP! >>>
Why is true sustainability so hard to achieve? Behind every environmentally friendly practice is a web of consequences, trade-offs, feedbacks, and barriers — and this undergraduate minor administered by iSEE will help you develop a systems-level perspective of the economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability to help you navigate them.
The Sustainability, Energy, and Environment Fellows Program (SEE FP) is a campuswide undergraduate minor that prepares students for careers in the corporate sector, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and environmental advocacy groups. More historical details about the minor program.
To apply, please see “APPLY NOW FOR STEPS AND REQUIREMENTS,” below.
The program is open to all students and majors. This minor requires 16-18 credits to be obtained by selecting from a list of courses (see below) in consultation with an advisor from iSEE. To find out more about the minor and the enrollment process, email the advisors at see-fellows@illinois.edu.
APPLY NOW
Applications are now being accepted year-round. To apply, prospective students must complete an online application that includes a brief personal essay on how participation in the SEE Fellows Program will help fulfill educational, personal, and/or professional goals.
Degree Requirements
For the latest list of courses that will prepare students for pursuing careers in the corporate sector, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and environmental advocacy groups, please check out the SEE FP listing in the course catalog >>>
Note that students must complete two required iSEE-taught courses:
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- Tools for Sustainability (ENVS 301) — open to students from all disciplines (click link for catalog; see below or iSEE’s courses page for fuller description); and
- Capstone Course (ENVS 492) (click link for catalog; see below or courses page for fuller description)
Finally, you may find additional potential course options beyond the SEE FP catalog listing on our sustainability courses Excel spreadsheet, though you will want to consult with iSEE to ensure they fulfill our requirements for the minor. Contact us at see-fellows@illinois.edu with questions.
Contact our Instructor/Advisor!
To learn more about the SEE FP, you can talk with iSEE Academic Program Instructor/Advisor Eric Green, who can be reached at 217-244-0728 or via email at ewgreen@illinois.edu.
Featured Courses
ENVS 492: Sustainability, Energy and Environment Capstone allows students to apply sustainability assessment tools, such as life-cycle analysis, cost-benefit methods and impact analysis to real-world world problems related to sustainability of campus and/or the community to be developed in collaboration with campus, Facilities & Services, local sustainability planners, private firms, and nonprofit organizations. Field site visits will be arranged during regular class time to visit local buildings, businesses, and civil and environmental infrastructure facilities. Course activities are a blend of case study discussion, problem identification, site visits, analysis, and a team report at the end of the semester.
A sampling of past student team reports …
2022
2021
- Analysis of green building tools on campus
- Cost-benefit analysis of solar farm management options
- Board game production — environmental impacts
2020
2019
- Urbana grocery store development project
- Champaign County Forest Preserve District GHG analysis project
- Martens Center/Human Kinetics park project
- Children’s environmental education project
ENVS 492 is now taught by iSEE Academic Advisor/Instructor Eric Green; teaching appointments for 2015-19 were made possible through the Levenick iSEE Fellows Program. Potential partners for capstone projects have included Accenture, Ameren, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bayer, Busey Bank, Carus Corp., Champaign Park District, Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, Champaign County Forest Preserve
District, City of Urbana, John Deere, Johnson Controls, Orpheum Children’s Science Museum, Sol Systems, Tovala, U of I Extension, and the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL).
ENVS 301: Tools for Sustainability teaches systems-level thinking skills to enable better understanding of the different dimensions of sustainability — and the problems and trade-offs involved in achieving that sustainability. Students learn about metrics for measuring sustainability. They also gain competence in tools such as cost-benefit and life-cycle analyses needed to compare the sustainability of different technologies and development options.
The course emphasizes communications skills, enabling students to articulate about the integrated dimensions of sustainability within an interdisciplinary setting. Teaching appointments in 2015-19 were made possible through the Levenick iSEE Fellows Program.
The course meets each Spring semester. Sophomores interested in enrolling in the minor are particularly encouraged to take ENVS 301.
For more information about registering for ENVS 301, contact the SEE Fellows Program at see-fellows@illinois.edu.
SEE FP Details, History
The purpose of the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Fellows Program (SEE FP) is to promote systems-level thinking about energy and sustainability and foster the development of an integrated view of the economy, society and the environment.
The SEE FP is being offered in partnership with six academic units — the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE), the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), the School of Integrative Biology (SIB), the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), the School of Earth, Society and Environment (SESE), and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP).
This program was approved by the Senate of the Urbana-Champaign Campus at its Sept. 21, 2015, meeting, and enrolled its first cohort of students in late fall 2015.
For more details, please email see-fellows@illinois.edu.