Overview: The Honors Integrated Minor in Ecology and Legacy focuses on human and nonhuman relationships in their ecosystems, and how these complicated entanglements manifest across place, population, and time. There is an urgent need for students who have multidisciplinary training and can think critically about how ecosystem well-being is intimately connected to societies and cultures. The integrated coursework offered through the Honors Integrated Minor in Ecology will prepare students to engage with broad issues of ecology, conservation, and environmental justice in their disciplines and/or professional areas with critical and systems-based thinking. Students will be introduced to diverse scientific and humanistic approaches to ecology that shape our understanding of “nature” and influence the past, current, and future formations of human and nonhuman relationships. Investigating these issues and concepts both in class and out in the field, students in the Honors Integrated Minor in Ecology will pursue place-based studies and practices to contextualize and orient their own ecological commitments. 

Approx Summer Cost: $7000 plus airfare 

Learning Abroad: Costa Rica, Early July to August 

Coursework Schedule: Forthcoming 

Application opening April 18, 2025. 

The Integrated Minor in Human Rights and Resources focuses on how the unequal distribution of natural and cultural resources shapes human experience, both within and beyond the traditional language of human rights. Topics include the management of limited natural resources, protection of minority languages, public transport in the megacity, the life of indigenous peoples in modern-day Mexico, all in the context of an ongoing education in the history of Mexico. The training and experiences gained by students who complete this program will help prepare them to make unique contributions in their chosen professional fields. For students pursuing careers in the sciences, the minor will allow them to place their disciplinary expertise in a larger humanistic framework. For students whose career paths lie outside of the sciences, the minor offers an opportunity to think about pressing global issues such as climate change in the context of specific forms of disciplinary knowledge, including those drawn from the STEM-affiliated fields. 

Approx Summer Cost: $5500 plus airfare 

Learning Abroad: Oaxaca and Mexico City, Mexico, Mid-May to Mid-June 

Coursework Schedule: Forthcoming  

Application opening April 18, 2025. 

The Honors Integrated Minor in Health develops interdisciplinary, systems-level thinking around issues of population health in order to understand and address health outcomes and achieve greater health equity and healthy societies. You will take courses in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences to develop a deep and nuanced understanding of the historical, social and environmental ecology of health and illness over place and time. 

Approx Summer Cost: $8200 plus airfare 

Learning Abroad: South Africa, Early July to August 

Application opening April 21, 2025. 

East Asia The Integrated Minor in Human Rights and Resources (East Asia Track) focuses on how the unequal distribution of natural and cultural resources shapes human experience in Korea and Mongolia, both within and beyond the traditional language of human rights. Topics include memory and loss in the context of Japanese colonial occupation and the Korean War; the management of limited natural resources such as minerals and pasture in Mongolia; the relationship between language, cultural preservation, and national identity; urbanization and public infrastructure in both Seoul and rural Mongolia; and healthcare as a human right. The training and experiences gained by students who complete this program will help prepare them to make unique contributions in their chosen professional fields. For students pursuing careers in the sciences, the minor will allow them to place their disciplinary expertise in a larger humanistic framework. For students whose career paths lie outside of the sciences, the minor offers an opportunity to think about pressing global issues in the context of specific forms of disciplinary knowledge, including those drawn from the STEM-affiliated fields.