Aerial view of campus with Williamsport, the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Mountain as a backdrop

Ecology Track

The Ecology Track provides students with the knowledge, experience, and skills sought after by graduate programs and companies and organizations that carry out ecological research, field biology, and environmental consulting. Interested students are encouraged to get involved with faculty research as soon as possible. This not only gives them invaluable experience conducting their own research, but also makes them competitive for summer internships. Recent summer internships have not only found our students working here at Lycoming's Clean Water Institute, but also on projects far from home. Lycoming students have taken internships to investigate submerged vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay, study the effects of herbivory in Alaska, work at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., study coral reef bleaching, examine the effects of mercury in coastal waters, and work for the PA. Department of Agriculture.

The Ecology track features a wide variety of field-related courses such as vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant courses as well as aquatic, marine, and terrestrial courses. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in a May-term study abroad course in Marine Ecology in Honduras.

Current students and recent graduates who have focused in this area have presented research and won awards at professional meetings such as the Wildlife Society and the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences. Recent graduates are in, or have graduated from, programs at the University of Montana, the College of William and Mary, Lehigh University, Villanova University, Rutgers University, Cornell University, University of Hawaii, University of Georgia, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Northern Arizona University. Other graduates have taken jobs for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Pennsylvania Game Commission, the National Park Service, the Alaska Bird Observatory and the US Department of Agriculture.

For more information on degree requirements and course descriptions, please refer to the College Catalog.