Environmental Conversations

Environmental Conversations — or “EnCon” as it is known on campus — is an interdisciplinary learning community open to all St. Olaf students interested in an integrated exploration of environmental questions, challenges, and possibilities. As a first-year conversation program, students take three sequenced courses (one each semester and one during January term) that fulfill three OLE Core curriculum requirements. Students who go on to major or concentrate in Environmental Studies also receive credit for ENVST 137: Introduction to Environmental Studies. 

Students get to know one another well in EnCon by remaining in small cohorts throughout the duration of the program and by living in a common first-year dorm. “EnConners” also meet regularly to share meals, volunteer at St. Olaf’s student-run farm STOGROW, enjoy the St. Olaf Natural Lands, and take in film nights. In EnCon conversations begin in the classroom, but easily transfer to the community through field trips and campus events.

The Environmental Conversations curriculum is shaped by guiding questions and delivered in an integrated, collaborative fashion wherein teaching faculty work together to create and teach EnCon courses. Because the program’s faculty hail from a variety of academic disciplines, students can expect to encounter methods and material from the social sciences, arts and humanities, and natural sciences.

Intended Learning Outcomes for the Program

Upon completion of the Environmental Conversations Program, students are equipped to demonstrate:  

1. Knowledge of the integral nature of Earth’s relationships, including those within and among Earth’s systems and the mutual influences of Earth’s systems, flow of goods and services, cultures, and worldviews;

2. Employment of such knowledge in the interpretation of environmental challenges and in the analysis of particular cases;

3. Development of creative responses to local and global environmental challenges; and

4. Reflection upon one’s own ecological vocation and those of communities to which one belongs.

Admission to the Program

Students apply to the Environmental Conversations program after they are admitted to the college.  Each year about 40 first-year students are admitted to the program. EnCon is open to students of all interests and provides an appropriate foundation for any major at the college. 

Coursework Overview

Fall: Life in the Anthropocene 

What are ways of understanding and/or defining “environment?” How do I consider, explore and act within the places and relationships I inhabit? How do others consider, explore and act within the places and relationships they inhabit? What are some of today’s most pressing environmental challenges and what is the systemic nature of those challenges? What stories have been/are told about our environment and who narrates these stories?

January term: Big Data & Bigger Challenges 

How is data collected, analyzed, modeled, and applied in fields collectively understood as environmental studies? Who or what are ecological actors, systems, and services and what is their value to one another? What are ethical considerations of environmental decision-making? 

Spring: Imagineering Earth's Future

Human beings appear hard-wired for story - telling them, creating them, and living within them. Building upon integral forms of knowledge, what are effective and creative ways to communicate environmental information? What motivates and inspires human beings to nurture existing relationships with their environment and/or to seek a change in those relationships? What are strategies and actions for solving environmental challenges? What role will I play in Earth’s future?

Course Equivalents for OLE Core Attributes

By successfully completing the Environmental Conversations program, students complete the following OLE Core curriculum requirements:

First-Year Seminar (FYS)

Writing & Rhetoric (WRR)