Environmental Health and Safety - A.A.S. Download to print

The Associate of Applied Science in Environmental Health and Safety provides students with the knowledge  to work in a number of career areas in business and industry. The degree program comprises three concentrations: Environmental Safety and Security, Environmental Technology and Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene.

The Environmental Safety and Security concentration allows students to gain more expertise in the areas of chemical-biological safety and security, an area of increased demand given the evolution of the homeland security-related professions. In addition, the concentration awards institutional credit for state certification for firefighters and Ohio peace officers. With this concentration, in-service students currently working in fire protection and law enforcement will be encouraged to pursue higher education in areas of interest to their careers.

The Environmental Technology concentration provides students with a working knowledge of the source, nature and scope of conditions that are or could be hazardous to the environment. This concentration is primarily focused on students interested in an associate degree, although it can be articulated to the Bachelor of Technical and Applied Studies degree Kent State.

The Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene concentration will allow students to articulate into the Bachelor of Science in Public Health degree at Kent State.

Science technicians held about 267,000 jobs in 2006. About 30 percent of biological technicians worked in professional, scientific or technical services firms; most other biological technicians worked in educational services, Federal, state and local governments or pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing. Chemical technicians held jobs in a wide range of manufacturing and service-providing industries. About 39 percent worked in chemical manufacturing, and another 30 percent worked in professional, scientific or technical services firms. Most environmental science and protection technicians worked for state and local governments and professional, scientific, and technical services firms. About 76 percent of forest and conservation technicians held jobs in the federal government, mostly in the Forest Service; another 17 percent worked for state governments. Around 32 percent of agricultural and food science technicians worked in educational services, and 20 percent worked for food processing companies; most of the rest were employed in agriculture. Forensic science technicians worked primarily for state and local governments. Approximately 37 percent of all geological and petroleum technicians worked for oil and gas extraction companies and 49 percent of nuclear technicians worked for utilities. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

All seven of Kent State’s regional campuses are accessible to students who hold a high school diploma or GED. Admission decisions are based on cumulative grade point average, ACT and/or SAT scores, strength of high school college preparatory curriculum and grade trends. Check with the Regional Campus Admissions Offices to determine application requirements, as they may differ among campuses.

For more information about admission criteria for transfer, transitioning and former students, please visit the admissions website.

Minimum 64-65 credit hours, depending on concentration chosen. Minimum 2.000 overall and major GPA.
 

Graduates of this program will be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge required of an environmental technologist.
2. Understand core concepts in select biological and chemical sciences.
3. Master the basic skills necessary for environmental investigation and be knowledgeable in designing, collecting data and analyzing results of investigations.
4. Use oral and written expression to clearly communicate technical concepts.
5. Grow in intellectual ability, enhance problem-solving knowledge, and attain higher level reasoning skills for advanced study or work in the environmental sciences.