Online environmental science students make an impact nationwide

As a 20-year-old cadet Jacob Cheeseman was aboard a U.S. Coast Guard cutter that seized 5,000 pounds of cocaine.

Cheeseman steered the ship in the waters off San Diego during the operation that netted drugs valued at $78 million. He said the action made him proud to belong to a team that helps make a difference.

Cheeseman is still in the “make a difference” business. As part of an online University of Idaho graduate environmental science program, the U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant plans to earn a master’s degree while researching how long industrial pollutants remain toxic to humans after being released into the environment during emergency incidents.

“It’s important to me to create public awareness around some of these potentially toxic chemicals that pollute, either on land or in the ocean, following spills across the country,” he said.

U of I’s Master of Science in environmental science caters to students from across the globe who want to earn graduate degrees but can’t attend courses on campus. It attracts students with a wide array of professional goals in key areas such as waste management, environmental pollution, policy and law, water science, land use and energy systems, as well as natural history and ecology.

Cheeseman belongs to a Coast Guard hazardous materials crew leading a team that responds to spills and similar incidents. Through the online master’s program within the College of Natural Resources he will earn a degree tailored to his interests.

“Idaho is known for its online environmental science program,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of these programs out there, so University of Idaho is leading the way.”

Another student in the U of I program, Elizabeth Van Camp, collects waterborne DNA in the estuaries of Milan Bottoms, Illinois. Her water samples are tested in a lab to determine the presence of Blanding’s turtles, a native species whose habitat is threatened by large-scale construction along the Mississippi River.

On the Atlantic seaboard in Beach Haven, New Jersey, Charlee Musiakiewicz shows people how to catch blue crabs in wire mesh traps, called pots. As part of her master’s project, she is developing curriculum around Atlantic Coast crustaceans that she plans to use in a middle school classroom when she becomes a teacher.

“These environmental science projects are standard for our students whose interests are often in their home region and who want to make a difference in their communities,” said Professor David Roon, the assistant director of the environmental science program.

The graduate program has a thesis option, which must be completed on the Moscow campus, and a non-thesis option for online students.

Roon, who has participated in the program for three years, said its success is due in part to its malleability.

“The online master’s program is very student centered and allows students to choose both classes and project options in a way that supports their unique goals and professional objectives,” he said. “This structure ensures that the degree is both focused and rigorous, but it also gives students enormous leeway to select courses that align with their personal journey as a scholar.”

Since elementary school, Van Camp, who lived along the Mississippi River, loved learning about the swamp and muck and animals that lived in the big river’s estuaries. She earned a social science degree, worked in the medical field, participated in research projects and led nature groups in her time off. She was introduced to Blandon’s turtles through her work as a nature tour guide in the estuaries.

“I knew I wanted to be more involved in environmental education and research,” she said.

Learning if Blandon’s turtles will be affected by future developments is consistent with her own academic goals.

“I wanted to do research in biology, but more on the environmental side,” she said. “When I heard about the commercial development in the wetlands, my objective was to make sure that Blandon’s are protected.”

Musiakiewicz’s interest in aquatic life was piqued in a seventh-grade marine science class. Growing up along the Atlantic where she caught blue crabs for the table and started her own business that teaches others to catch them — from cutting bait to setting crab pots. She realized many people on the eastern seaboard knew very little about the ocean’s crustaceans.

Musiakiewicz earned a teaching degree with a science emphasis and will use the U of I Master of Environmental Science program to develop a program to teach students about marine life.

“Everything I do revolves around marine biology, and I wanted my master’s so I could be better informed,” she said. “This idea of starting an after-school program to teach about marine life and animals is really what I am focused on for my graduate school project.”

Roon said scores of students have completed the program during his tenure and have gone on to leverage their degree to advance in environmental fields including a student who worked as a marine guide in the Galápagos Islands when she enrolled in the U of I program. The student parleyed her master’s work into a research position in Hoi An, Vietnam, running marine conservation projects.

Another student, an Alaska Native citizen. did her project on the water quality impacts of the trans-Alaska pipeline.

“For her, the master’s degree was a pathway to greater job security and mobility,” Roon said of the student who used the degree to advance within Alaska’s Department of Energy.

As a professor in the program, Roon provides logistical help — mentoring students as they select classes, build a study plan and complete the formal requirements of a project. He engages in one-on-one sessions with every student to help them define and refine their goals for the master’s degree, and he helps students find professors to oversee their projects.

Van Camp said she chose the U of I program because it checked all the boxes: it was online, rigorous, research-oriented, with a lot of one-on-one mentorships. Cheeseman considers the program the top online master’s in the nation. It also made the number one slot on Musiakiewicz’s list.

“It was my first choice, so as soon as I got accepted, I quit looking,” she said.