This was the final semester of my dual master’s in public administration and environment and natural resources at The Ohio State University. It’s hard to believe after five years I am almost done. To be honest, I am exhausted and thought strongly about taking the summer off and finishing my degree in the fall. But my advisor in Environment and Natural Resources encouraged me to go ahead and finish this summer, and I am glad I did.
This summer entailed finishing the requirements for my environment and natural resources degree. That meant taking an ecology course, since I had to drop Stream Ecology last fall. My advisor recommended I take EEOB 5910, Field Herpetology, a weeklong intensive course at Stone Lab at Stone Lab in May. I needed one more course, so I chose FABE 5350, another weeklong intensive course at Stone Lab in August. In between these two courses, I wrote the required MENR paper on High Speed Rail as an Element of the Green New Deal.
Although I finished all my coursework over the summer, I got sick for two weeks while writing my MENR paper, so I had to turn it in late. This meant the paper missed the Graduate School deadline for summer session, and was graded on the end-of-semester option. That means that while I am done with classes, I won’t get the MENR diploma until December. That’s okay. The coursework is done, the degree is approved, and I can now call myself a dual master of public administration and environment and natural resources!