Catalogue

Bard Graduate Programs in Sustainability

gps.bard.edu

Bard’s Graduate Programs in Sustainability (GPS) cultivate leaders who break through existing systems and innovate solutions to critical social, environmental, and economic challenges. Bard GPS students pursue master’s degrees in environmental and climate policy, business, or education that embed extended field-based practical training and individualized career support. Bard GPS grew out of the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, which was founded in 1999 to promote education, research, and leadership on critical environmental issues, and to encourage its students, alumni/ae, and faculty to work toward a just transition to shared well-being on a healthy planet.

Bard GPS offers four master’s degrees as well as a variety of dual-degree options.

MS in Environmental Policy and MS in Climate Science and Policy: These programs provide rigorous interdisciplinary grounding in science, economics, policy, law, education, and communication. Graduates pursue careers as policy analysts, educators, and advocates in NGOs, government, and business. During the first year of study, all students participate in an integrated interdisciplinary curriculum on the Bard campus. The MS students begin in January with a 10-day course focusing on policy for sustainable development in Oaxaca, Mexico. A high-level, full-time professional internship is an integral part of training during the second year, when students also complete an individual capstone project.

MEd in Environmental Education: The MEd curriculum is a carefully curated program that combines environmental education classes with graduate courses from the MS in Environmental Policy and Bard’s Master of Arts in Teaching Program, with the option of taking management and leadership courses in the Bard MBA in Sustainability program. In addition to the core classroom curriculum, the MEd program features a 10-day January intensive in the Catskill Mountains, where students learn environmental education techniques in the field. The second year includes a professional internship and capstone project.

MBA in Sustainability: The Bard MBA teaches students to build businesses and nonprofit organizations that simultaneously pursue economic, environmental, and social objectives—the integrated bottom line—to create a healthier, more just and sustainable world. Based in New York City, the Bard MBA is structured around monthly weekend residencies (Friday morning to Monday afternoon) and online instruction two evenings a week. This hybrid structure allows students to work while pursuing their MBA degree, and Bard offers full-time and part-time enrollment options. The curriculum fully combines the study of business with the study of sustainability, and covers subjects including leadership, operations, marketing, finance, economics, and strategy. In Bard’s unique NYCLab course, MBA students complete a professional consultancy in the first year of the program, working in small teams with corporate, governmental, and nonprofit organizations to solve sustainability-related business problems. In the final year, students pursue yearlong, individually mentored capstone projects that can take the form of a business start-up, intrapreneurial project in their workplace, consultancy, research project, or business plan. The Bard MBA offers five optional focus areas: circular value chain management, impact finance, sustainability consulting, nonprofit management, and entrepreneurship.

Bard GPS also offers a dual-degree option through Pace Law School and a biannual leadership training workshop for aspiring sustainability leaders through its C2C workshops. In partnership with the Open Society University Network (OSUN), Bard GPS leads global efforts to bring climate education to classrooms around the world through its Worldwide Teach-In on Climate and Justice. Bard GPS also seeks to increase students’ access to training in building social enterprises through its Certificate in Social Enterprise and Leading Change program, which brings key coursework from the MBA in Sustainability to students around the world. Additionally, Bard GPS is a partner institution in the Peace Corps’ Paul D. Coverdell program as well as the Solve Climate by 2030 initiative, which features a series of global dialogue webinars hosted by concerned universities.