When Dr. Nathan Glover was designing Grand Canyon University’s new master of science degree in sustainability, he did so in the light of the university’s mission, grounded in Christian worldview.
What drove the College of Natural Sciences educator was balancing the rigor of academic coursework with Christian stewardship principles, such as ethical and responsible practices.
Glover has taught at GCU for more than a decade, previously developing the college’s science education program.
“If you’re going to be a science teacher, you have to run through my science education program,” he said.
And he’s rightfully proud of his sustainability education work at GCU, with the master’s program, a 100% online degree, seeing its first cohort. A bachelor of science degree in sustainability is under development.
The new program, he hopes, will position GCU as a leader in sustainability education, a cousin of sorts to environmental science. While environmental science focuses on understanding the Earth’s systems and the human impact on those systems, sustainability is less about the problem and more about designing solutions to minimize that human impact.
With a foundation in the bachelor of science program, students can pursue traditional sustainability tracks, such as climate and ecological sciences, or professions such as urban planning, sports medicine, and business and economics.
Glover sees the master’s program, which offers coursework in sustainability science, climate modeling, policy analysis and global leadership, as something to help working professionals advance their careers.
“Basically, say, you’re an economist. You can go back to your business and say, ‘We’re going to move in a more sustainable manner,’” Glover said. “Start operating sustainably based on the new information. That’s what makes sustainability such a great thing as a degree program.”
One of the unique characteristics of the program is that internships are replaced with end-of-program capstone projects. For sustainability coursework, the capstone will be a comprehensive five-part project developed across multiple courses.
“It’s the culmination of their program,” said Glover. “I didn’t want them to be like me when I got my master’s degree in environmental science, and I focused on sustainability and energy. Then you hear, ‘You have no experience. You have all this educational knowledge, but there’s nothing you can really do for us.’”
The program’s charter calls for graduates to be responsible stewards of creation and contributors to global well-being.
Glover sees sustainability as something applicable to any profession. While some view the field as activism, he sees it as a faith-informed responsibility.
“That’s the beauty about sustainability, you can pretty much apply it to anything in any business,” he said. “You can apply it to writing, you can apply it to science, you can apply it to economics, you can apply it to sports medicine if you want to.”
Glover said the GCU program emphasizes leadership, ethics and community challenges, roles that stem from the GCU mission, and he designed it to blend scientific rigor and systems thinking with policy awareness, ethics and leadership development.
“This reflects GCU’s mission to prepare graduates who serve as responsible stewards of creation and contributors to global well-being,” he said. “(The program) integrates Christian themes around stewardship and justice.”
He added, “Students want to know why they’re learning something, and that’s really good. I wanted it to be practical. I wanted it to be something that they could apply throughout the career that they’re already working in and build on it and actually advance their career.”
Eric Jay Toll can be reached at [email protected].
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