Support the next generation of environmental leaders

Their voices, ideas, and leadership are needed now and in the future

Support Students

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Make an impact

Give the gift of education

A group of students on a mountain top.

Scholarships make an environmental education possible for students facing significant need, so no promising student is ever forced to set aside their dream due to food and housing insecurity or concerns about debt.

 

Make a gift to CENV Annual Scholarships

Advance community and connection

Researchers move fish from one location into another for study

The Dean’s Fund for Excellence supports student activities and events around community building and celebrating success. This fund is for donors who recognize the power of relationship-building and networking and its centrality to growing success for students, staff, and faculty.

 

Make a gift to the CENV Dean’s Fund for Excellence:

 

Support emerging leaders

Fellow students at the end of the year retreat

The Dean’s Fund for Sustainability supports students who want to attend and present their work at conferences and workshops, providing opportunities to engage and network in their field.

 

Make a gift to the CENV Dean’s Fund for Sustainability

 

Opening doors for student success

Four people taking samples from a river.

Research Immersive Summer Experience (RISE), a unique College of the Environment program partially funded by the Climate Innovation Fund, pairs faculty and peer mentorship with valuable research opportunities and builds competence through confidence and connection here. In the summer 2025 pilot year, RISE enabled eight students to participate in an immersive paid hands-on research experience.

“I really appreciate the opportunity for mentorship that this program allows,” said Kenia Hernandez, a RISE student who worked in Associate Professor Froylán Sifuentes’ research lab. “Being first gen, there are a lot of things I didn’t know about university research or grad school, and this was a very big learning experience for me.”

While most undergraduate research opportunities go to upper-division students and declared majors, or to students who already have research experience, RISE was designed to give first- and second-year students who are first in their families to attend college or Pell-eligible a chance to get research experience early in their college journey. 

Other areas of support

  • Institute, departments and programs
  • Undergraduate research
  • Undergraduate scholarships
  • Sustainability Pathways
  • College of the Environment graduate programs
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Points of pride

A student holds up two Dungeness crabs
Students in white coveralls prepare for work
Two people carry a canoe into a lake, while a third person stands on the end of a dock in the background.
Overhead image of two students in lab coats preparing duckweed
  • Faculty and staff advance new knowledge and integrate students into research opportunities. With over $7M in external grants, CENV is vital in advancing the region’s environmental and climate solutions.
  • CENV prioritizes experiential learning — whether in the field, the lab, the studio, the office, or the community. Programs like Environmental Studies' Spring Block, Environmental Science Field Camp, and Sustainability Pathways offer students immersive, transformational, quarter-long integrated coursework and field experience. All majors require hands-on learning through internships, study abroad, or capstone projects. These experiences build technical and soft skills that employers value.
  • In 2025-26, CENV employed 136 students in research and support roles. This work provides financial support and fosters connection and learning.
  • CENV is committed to interdisciplinary work and collaborates with other colleges and programs at WWU, including the Salish Sea Institute, the Institute for Energy Studies, Marine and Coastal Sciences, Honors College, the College of Business and Economics with Business and Sustainability and Environmental Economics majors, and Planet Magazine, launched by Environmental Studies and Journalism. These partnerships offer students real-world experience and diverse perspectives.
  • CENV supports student-led projects and grants, resulting in initiatives like the Gear Lending Library, universal design and climate anxiety workshops, a club showcase designed to build student organization collaboration and capacity and community building events for students to interact with faculty. These projects build practical skills and foster a sense of community.
  • CENV undergraduates are consistently overrepresented in the Honors College. In 2025-26, they made up 10% of Honors students while only 7% of WWU majors. 

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The Foundation for WWU & Alumni

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forwestern@wwu.edu

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