Program Goals and Learning Outcomes

Students graduating from MASS will have achieved development as leaders for sustainability by demonstrating their skill in three areas of practice.

I.  Sustainability Literacy and Communication

Students will master these skills:

1. Sustainability Literacy. Build the foundational knowledge to foster sustainability at multiple spatial and temporal scales and across levels of organization.
2. Critical Thinking. Acquire and analyze information about sustainability so as to facilitate informed decisions.
3. Synthesis. Develop high levels of proficiency in the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary synthesis and integration of information relevant to sustainability across varied contexts.
4. Sustainability Discourse. Design collaborative processes and engage in dialogue with diverse audiences to facilitate sustainable outcomes.

II. Methods of Sustainability

The student will gain an understanding of:

1. Project Design and Implementation. Becoming adept at defining problems, framing pertinent questions, conducting inquiry, and designing, implementing and evaluating interventions.
2. Sustainability Assessment. Learning to observe and assess diverse indicators of sustainability using appropriate measures and means of evaluation.
3. Decision Making. Gaining facility with tools and techniques that guide decision making processes toward sustainable solutions.

III. Practices of Sustainability

Students will develop a facility with:

1. Organizational Leadership. Develop an understanding of social dynamics so as to be able to play a key role in helping formal or informal organizations achieve their objectives.
2. Stewardship and Adaptive Management. The identification of sustainable socio-ecological systems and the steps needed to conserve and foster their health through the practice of active stewardship in a changing environment.
3. Consensus Building. The methods of building common agreement among stakeholders to achieve sustainability outcomes.
4. Sustainability Best Practices. The ability to identify and foster recognized methods and interventions that work to achieve sustainability in the contexts within which they work.