Missouri Southern’s Environmental Health Program will be expanding next year with the new Environmental Health and Safety degree. This new degree will teach students how to prevent physical and biological hazards from effecting the environment and the people who live in it.

The director of the program, Dr. Michael Fletcher, said, “I believe the changes we have made will make the student more marketable than ever before and they will be able to better plan for a career in EHS. Also, we have reduced the overall hours in the degree program while retaining the quality of course work. Starting Fall 2014, an EHS major is only required 45 hours of EH courses, which leaves some room for a minor or even a dual major in another field.”

Some of the new courses for this degree include Career Planning for Environmental Health and Safety along with a two credit-hour course on hazardous material safety. The career planning course will help students determine a precise career path, and the hazardous material course will prepare students to take the Hazardous Material Manager-in-Training exam. The certification of that exam plus job experience will allow students to later take the Certified Hazardous Materials Manager exam.

Students who pass the senior assessment exam in the Environmental Health Program will receive certified Environmental Health Specialist credentials within the state of Missouri. Those students can get jobs in public health departments and with environmental consultants with this degree.

Fletcher also noted, “Many students do not know that the MSSU EH degree is only one of thirty accredited BS in EH degrees in the nation or do they know we have had a 96 percent placement rate for our graduates. Many do not know that the senior assessment exam for our EH majors is the Missouri Certified Environmental Health Specialist exam, which, if passed, allows them to bear CEHS after their name and aids them in getting jobs such as jobs with public health departments.”

For more information about the degree or how to sign up for classes, visit www.mssu.edu/academics/programs/environmental-health.