Student success in the School of the Environment
The School of the Environment is training the next generation of natural resource experts, conservation professionals and environmental advocates. Learn how the school is setting students up for success.
Studying glaciers
Madelyn Woods is an IFITS scholarship recipient, Fulbright semifinalist and Honors College student majoring in environmental science with minors in climate studies, sustainability, biology and geospatial information analysis. With an interest in cryospheric studies, she hopes to work for NOAA as a climatologist. Hands-on learning opportunities and faculty mentoring through the School of the Environment are helping make this happen.
Art as advocacy
Visual Arts MFA student Choe Nealon uses printmaking to explore nuclear waste’s lasting environmental impact and intergenerational trauma. As a 2025 PLACE Scholar through the Andrus Center, she brings an artist’s perspective to environmental advocacy, drawing from her childhood near Washington’s Hanford Site, one of the world’s most contaminated radioactive locations. Her work challenges viewers to confront plutonium production’s long-term consequences for generations to come.
Field experience
Environmental studies senior Carter Hilton exemplifies how the School of the Environment prepares students for the future through hands-on learning. Hilton’s experiences range from service learning trail restoration in Hull’s Gulch to his Andrus Scholar work with the Bureau of Land Management. These field experiences give him the skills and confidence needed to pursue a career in wilderness conservation after graduation.
Environmental research
Lily Criswell is a biology major preparing for medical school, and in spring 2025, Criswell won a Boise Cascade Corporation Environmental Research Fellowship from the School of the Environment. The grant supports her latest research project, studying the microbial communities connected with sagebrush plants.
“It’s so much different than taking a biology lab for a class… It’s more real. You’re actually contributing something to science, which makes it a lot more enjoyable.”