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Nothing can replace going into the field and getting your “hands dirty” for really learning about the environment. For a student, spending time in the field is an opportunity to interact with, and get to know, faculty that can never be matched in the classroom. It is vital for Environmental Studies to be able to provide as many field trip opportunities as possible, and to make each as valuable as possible. This fund exists to enhance undergraduate environmental education, including field trips and classroom technology. It is named to honor Bill Freudenburg, who passed away in December 2010. Bill was the model of an environmental studies professor; he held the Dehlsen Endowed Chair in Environmental Studies and was a world class scholar, committed to using his work to make the world a better place for all people. He was also an inspiring and popular educator who taught among other classes ENV S 1 - our introductory class, to over 400 students each year.   

This fund was created to honor Environmental Studies Lecturer Emeritus Barry Schuyler, and through him to honor and support lecturers in Environmental Studies. Lecturers have long been a crucial component of our program. They bring a real-world, hands-on, experiential insight to complement the academic perspectives provided by our faculty.

The Schuyler Lecturer Fund has two primary goals:
1. Support our existing lecturers with resources for professional development and to enhance their classes.
2. Allow us to periodically invite individuals to teach classes (either special short courses or full quarter-length courses) that would provide unique opportunities for our students

This is to directly support student activities and development. These resources will provide for internships, scholarships, and fund student research projects and program awards such as the McGinnes Environmental Law and Advocacy Scholarship and the Distinguished Senior Thesis Award. It also helps sponsor student-organized environmentally-related workshops and conferences.

This fund supports an Annual Lecture and Community Gathering on Water Sustainability. These annual lectures focus on innovative approaches to the complex issues of water quality and watershed protection with an emphasis on the things that were most important to Darcy: protection of wild places and wildlife, public health and minimizing the human footprint on earth. Lectures are open to students, faculty and employees of UCSB as well as the general public. These annual lectures also serve as an opportunity for Darcy's friends, family and colleagues to gather to honor and remember Darcy.

Unexpected needs arise all the time when offering one of the largest undergraduate programs at UC Santa Barbara. From opportunities to host a special guest speaker, a last minute off-campus class excursion, to sponsoring a campus symposium on a 'hot' environmental topic, donations to Environmental Studies unrestricted fund provides the program chair a vital resource to respond to and fund amazing and spontaneous educational opportunities for our students and faculty.  Giving to this fund allows Environmental Studies to direct funds where they are most needed.

Endowed chairs allow us to recruit the best faculty in the world, people who are world-class scholars and skilled, dedicated teachers. We target interdisciplinary thinkers who will strengthen the campus as a whole.

Gifts to the Environmental Studies Program Environmental Leadership Incubator (ELI) support a yearlong leadership experience organized around student-initiated team projects addressing local to national environmental challenges. The ELI harnesses undergraduates’ dedication to environmental change by teaching, training and developing leaders to become change-makers and environmental champions. The ELI is centered on student-driven projects across the domains of social activism, technology development, and policy change that seek to implement positive environmental change. Learn more about the Environmental Leadership Incubator by clicking here.

The Paul Wack Environmental Studies Alumni Scholarship fund has been established in honor of Paul Wack, retired Senior Continuing Lecturer in the Environmental Studies Program. This scholarship may be used to sponsor a planning internship secured independently by the student recipient or as part of the Center for Undergraduate Environmental Leadership (CUEL)/Environmental Leadership Incubator Program (ELI). Gifts to the Paul Wack Environmental Studies Alumni Scholarship in Planning support undergraduate students pursuing a career in Planning.