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UNL Environmental and Sustainability Studies

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Do greater good.

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🌱 What happens when more than 200 young people come together to imagine a better future for Nebraska?

What a spectacular Nebraska Youth Climate Summit! More than 200 youth from the Lincoln area gathered to learn, connect, and explore ways to build a more resilient future.

A huge thank you to Nebraska Interfaith Power & Light and UNL East Campus for hosting this inspiring event and creating space for young voices and new ideas.

NaTerra Farms was honored to share our work in Regenerative Agriculture and our vision of:

🌱 Soil — regenerating the land
❤️ Spirit — reconnecting people, culture, and nature
🌽 Sovereignty — empowering communities to shape their own food future

The future is already growing—and Nebraska’s youth are part of it.

Soil • Spirit • Sovereignty
NaTerra Farms

#unl #youth #climate

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Save time on packing and donate clothes, kitchen essentials, and non-perishable food items to students on campus.

Please wash clothing and kitchen essentials before donating. No perishable items please (fresh foods, items that require refrigeration, etc.).

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Monday will kick off our annual CASNR Major Madness competition! 🏆

Keep up on the @unl_casnr Instagram stories next week, vote for your favorite majors, and maybe they’ll be crowned the Majors Madness champ!

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Part two of the rainbow of campus sustainability initiatives! Which color is your favorite?

#Sustainability #UNL #GoBigRed #Husker #LNK

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Are you an environmental and sustainability studies student looking for ways to get involved on campus?

Check out these five campus involvements and find one that best supports your interests:

1. ASUN
2. ESSAC
3. Office of Sustainability
4. UNL Soil Judging Team
5. SustainUNL

Do greater good and promote sustainability across campus!!

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Jackson Farho is graduating from the Environmental and Sustainability Studies program this semester! Read more about his plans for after graduation below.

— What drew you to the ESS program?
“The ESS program’s emphasis on experiential learning and the open-minded community of students and faculty made me feel welcomed and excited to learn. Even before taking my first class in the ESS program, I knew I had made the right choice.”

— What is the most impactful thing you learned in your program?
“While the most valuable thing was our team’s experience and development of transferable skills as Lincoln-area consultants in ENVR 319, Hillary Nieman’s impactful lectures on cultural and systems-thinking frameworks reframed how I problem-solve environmental (and other) issues. This foundation has broadened how I view the world and emphasized the need for collective action across disciplines.”

— What was your favorite study spot on campus?
“Love Library’s Mezzanine room is my favorite quiet study space and the Academic Grind in Oldfather for the regular study session!”

— What are your plans for after graduation?
“I accepted an offer letter with Benesch as a Scientist I position on their Natural Resources Team. Beyond anything else, I am excited to put my newfound skills and connections to use in this next chapter of my life.”

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Grace Schleining is concluding her time in the ESS program this semester, but her time as a Husker is not over! Learn more about Grace below.

—What drew you to the ESS program?
“Growing up on a small farm in rural Nebraska, I’ve always appreciated the land and felt a stewardship ethic toward it. Being able to witness the power, balance, resilience, and intricacy of the natural resource systems from a young age inspired my interest in weather and climate science, which eventually grew into an interest in drought and humankind’s interactions with the environment. The Environmental and Sustainability Studies program was the perfect opportunity to explore the nexus between all my interests. I really appreciated the flexibility of the program so that I could take classes that really interested me and expanded my horizons while allowing me to pursue the 3+3 law program.”

— What is the most impactful thing you learned in your program?
“A few classes I have taken have focused on why we interact with the environment in the way we do via psychology, sociology, culture, and childhood experiences. This really spurred me to combine my interests in drought, psychology, stewardship, and agriculture into my senior honors thesis: The Exploration of the Mental Health Impacts of Drought on Rural Nebraskans via Remembered Perceptions. This was such a fun project as I studied droughts through time, different perspectives, and how it impacts farmers and rural Nebraskans. This was the perfect culmination of my interests and skills and knowledge gained through the ESS program.”

—What was your favorite study spot on campus?
“The East Campus Union, as close as possible to the Starbucks 😉”

—What are your plans for after graduation?
“I will finish my last two years of law school and plan to practice law in Nebraska.”

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Alora Schneider is graduating from UNL’s Environmental and Sustainability Studies program this semester! Alora reflects on the experience below:

— What drew you to the ESS program?
“I knew that I would always be super motivated to study and work in this field. I’m very lucky to have parents that instilled in me a love for all things science and nature from a young age. I was tent camping in Florida state parks before I could walk! So, environmental studies jumped out to me more than other majors. ESS allowed me to learn about different areas of biology, economics, sociology, anthropology, earth science, geography, etc. through the lens of protecting the planet. What’s better than that!?”

— What is the most impactful thing you learned in your program?
“I have learned so much, but I would say that I have two main takeaways from ESS that I try to apply in all areas of my life. First, sustainability is impossible without equity and justice. Second, there is inherent value to ALL living things outside of their benefit to humans. People are unique in both our ability and responsibility to be stewards, but we are not better.“

—What was your favorite study spot on campus?
“I have spent probably hundreds of hours studying in the stacks on the second floor of Love Library. I love bird and/or people watching out of the big windows!”

—What are your plans for after graduation?
“I will be starting a master’s in biological sciences at UNL this fall! I’ll be studying under Scott Gardner in the Manter Lab of Parasitology. My ultimate goal is to work in conservation ecology research.”

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Join four Environmental and Sustainability Studies students for a day in their lives! They’ll show you how easy it can be to integrate sustainable choices, like riding @bikelnk or the StarTran bus system, into student life at UNL!

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The last week of Earthstock 2025 is upon us! Thank you all for making it such a lovely Earth Month so far, let’s finish strong!!

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Meet Dr. Hillary Nieman, a lecturer in the Environmental & Sustainability Studies program at UNL. Hillary grew up on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain in Slidell, Louisiana. In high school, she moved to a small town in rural southeast Nebraska and eventually enrolled in the Environmental Studies program at UNL.

What drew you to UNL?

“I was visiting Lincoln to see family and reached out to Dr. Corey Forbes in the CASNR School of Natural Resources. I was interested in his research and wanted to meet him and learn more. A few years after this meeting, Corey contacted me about a teaching opportunity in the Environmental & Sustainability Studies program at UNL. I was hired at the start of the COVID pandemic, and the rest is history. I like to tell this story to my students and emphasize the power of reaching out and building a social network. You never know where it may lead. In this case I came full circle back to my alma mater!”

What aspect of working in an educational setting do you enjoy the most?

“One of our core tenets in the Environmental & Sustainability Studies program is to “do greater good.” I am privileged to work within a community of movers and shakers who are motivated to make a difference and put some good out into the world. Providing students with opportunities to learn and apply their skills in an authentic and relevant context is what I enjoy most about my job. Whether visiting the landfill, developing policy briefs around a local environmental issue, or learning how to employ a community-based social marketing strategy for sustainable behavior change, I enjoy watching students grow in their self-efficacy and gain the knowledge and skills they need to go out into the world and make a real impact.”

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Join ASUN in celebrating Earth Month by participating in the 11th annual Earthstock throughout this April! This student-organized event series is a celebration of campus sustainability and our beautiful planet! Find more details at asun.unl.edu/earthstock.

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