Recently, a USDA grant proposal seeking support for six graduate stipends (three per year for two years) was submitted and funded. The program requires the completion of the MES Student Team Project during their first year of study and completion of a Capstone Project during the second year. The USDA graduate stipend awardees will be selected by a MES stipend selection committee. Graduate stipend recipients will work 20 hours per week during their first year on the MES Student Team Project. Some students will be recent graduates while others will have been employed before seeking a graduate degree at KSU. Each team will have at least one faculty adviser to assist the team. A final written report will be completed and a formal presentation made at the end of the spring semester. Several examples of potential Student Team Projects are included in the program description.
The KSU MES program should also be attractive to some of KSU's education majors. Once the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) adopts the proposed new guidelines for master's degree programs for rank change for teachers, the program director will explore the possibility of making the KSU MES degree compatible to EPSB requirements. It is highly possible that the MES program should pave the way to eventually seek and establish a master's in education degree at KSU.
Kentucky State University is located in Frankfort where one of the largest state government agencies, the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet, has most of its offices. The Cabinet also has a large laboratory which is responsible for all water-quality monitoring for the entire state. It is anticipated that the KSU environmental studies graduate program will be able to serve the needs of the state government as well as regional private sectors. The State Central Environmental Laboratory can also serve as a site for internships for KSU environmental graduate students. This type of hands-on environmental laboratory experience will qualify graduates for challenges that await them following graduation.
Use of a multi-disciplinary approach outlined for the proposed program to address the needs of an interdisciplinary subject matter is not new. A number of environmental studies program are found around the country, including the nationally recognized
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