See where some of our recent graduates come from.
Read stories of our recent alumni.
Originally from the East Coast, Chastity moved to Spokane, Washington in 2017 with her husband and two cats. She is transitioning from a 13-year career in nursing, primarily as a nurse in the emergency department and more recently as a nurse practitioner in urgent and emergency care. In 2019, she decided it was time for a career change. Growing concerns over the health of the environment led her to pursue a Professional Science Master’s (PSM) degree in Environmental Sciences, concentrating… more
Originally from Grand Junction, Colorado but a California resident for over 20 years now. My background is blue-collar, working in hard labor construction and maintenance jobs most of my life. When I moved to California, I found myself living across the street from a community college.
As a high-school dropout, I never thought I had the potential to attend college but, on a whim, I applied and began taking general education classes as a non-traditional student at College of the… more
Justin Nelson completed the Professional Science Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences with a focus on climate change in the winter of 2022. After graduating from the University of Denver with an undergraduate degree in finance and working in the financial services industry, Justin decided to follow his interests and pursue a career related to climate and environmental sciences.
The PSM program was completed to further bolster Justin’s technical capabilities, allowing for a… more
Lindsey Arotin graduated from Oregon State’s PSM in Environmental Sciences program in 2021. Lindsey is originally from Hollidaysburg, PA but moved to Anchorage, AK at a young age and has since lived in a handful of locations. She began her career in the environmental field with the US Air Force where she served 6 years as a Bioenvironmental Engineering Technician in Minot, North Dakota, and Ramstein, Germany. After the Air Force, she earned a BA in environmental studies from Penn State… more
Upon graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies, Katelyn secured a student contractor position with U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development. As a Research Assistant, she studied the hydrogeology of different soil orders across the United States to help create a database of urban soil characteristics that could be used to recommend suitable and effective green infrastructure solutions as a tool for stormwater management.… more
K. Morgan Fay, a Coast Guard Vet and mother of two, recently completed the PSM Environmental Sciences Graduate Program with a focus on ecology and project management for ecological restoration. After completing her double Bachelors of Science in Sustainability and Natural Resource Management from the College of Forestry at OSU she was accepted into the PSM Environmental Science program in hopes to pursue dreams of owning and operating her own business to provide ecological restoration… more
Tom grew up in Southwestern Pennsylvania and has a B.S in Business Administration from California University of Pennsylvania. Before enrolling into the PSM Environmental Sciences program with Oregon State University he held various positions in Pennsylvania and Utah. While in Pennsylvania Tom worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Mine Safety and an engineering/environmental firm CESO Inc., where he participated in his environmental internship. Prior… more
Mikihiko Kurimura recently graduated with a Professional Science Master degree in Environmental Sciences. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Environment at Tokyo City University in Japan, Mikihiko decided to enroll at Oregon State University to study environment problems more deeply with a business perspective through the PSM program. The fact that the business sector relates to environmental problems is obvious, since manufacturing of goods and products from raw materials result in… more
After spending most of her childhood traveling around the world, Rachel Hughes returned to the United States to earn a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics from Houghton College in New York. She joined the United States Air Force via Officer Training School and went on to complete another Bachelor of Science, this time in Meteorology, from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. A Master of Science followed, also in Meteorology. Rachel then served 6 years as a… more
Yinan Liu is an international student receiving his Professional Science Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences at Oregon State University with a focus on Quantitative Analysis. He grew up in Beijing, China, and his fascination with Environmental Sciences started when his neighbor got lung cancer in his high school. Gradually, Beijing was covered with a haze coupled with hot and humid conditions which may be related to soil, air, and water pollution, and which further compels his firm… more