This July, Professor John Wargo will step down as Faculty Chair of Yale College’s Environmental Studies (EVST) Major. Professor Wargo, a founding figure in the program’s design, growth, and academic rigor, has also cultivated its strong sense of community.
He began his leadership in EVST as one of the program’s early Directors of Undergraduate Studies, a role he held for eight years before becoming Chair. Over the past 17 years in that position, he has played a central role in shaping the major’s curriculum—advocating for increased specialization and supporting students’ freedom to pursue one of ten focus areas. He also led the faculty in developing and adopting the Bachelor of Science (BS) degree track.
Professor Wargo worked closely with Professor Jeffrey Park (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and Professor Paul Sabin (History) to provide steady and visionary leadership that fostered the major’s growth, stability, and academic excellence. Under their stewardship, EVST grew from graduating just two majors in 2002 to 53 in 2025.
Reflecting on his experience, Professor Wargo shared:
“Nearly 50 faculty members from 20 different departments and four professional schools teach courses listed under EVST. It has been a great honor to guide the program’s development, to teach such exceptional students, and to collaborate with extraordinary colleagues.
A core philosophy of the major is that students should explore human relationships with the natural world through the lenses of the humanities, social sciences, and STEM disciplines. Our mission has been to cultivate both scholarship and leadership in our students and to foster the scientific understanding needed to address some of our most pressing environmental challenges.
Directors of Undergraduate Studies—Paul Sabin, Amity Doolittle, Michael Fotos, and Kealoha Freidenburg—have each contributed years of dedicated service to the major and have been instrumental in the major’s growth and success.”
Professor Wargo taught several thousand undergraduates throughout his career and mentored nearly 100 students through completing their senior essays. He also regularly taught—and sometimes led—the Senior Colloquium, guiding students through the capstone essay process.
He organized nearly 20 field trips with EVST students, including 15 to the Adirondack Park, often joined by Professors Paul Sabin and Jeffrey Park, and Sara Smiley Smith, the program’s first manager.
He collaborated with former Yale College Dean Peter Salovey and Dean Gus Speth of the Yale School of the Environment (then the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, or FES) to establish a unique and lasting partnership between Yale College and YSE. He developed and has overseen the Yale College–YSE Five-Year Program, which allows students to earn a Master of Environmental Management (MEM) or a Master of Environmental Science (MESc) with just one additional year of study beyond their undergraduate degree.
A key outcome of this collaboration has been the expanded accessibility of YSE graduate-level courses to Yale College students. Professor Wargo also encouraged YSE faculty to teach in Yale College and to cross-list their courses, significantly broadening academic opportunities for Environmental Studies majors.
As Chair of Environmental Studies, Professor Wargo spearheaded efforts to engage faculty from across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Yale’s professional schools to teach in the EVST program. His emphasis on cross-disciplinary collaboration and volunteer faculty engagement helped build a robust and supportive network of scholars, enriching the program’s intellectual depth, academic breadth, and sense of community.
Under his leadership, the EVST major evolved to reflect environmental challenges’ increasing complexity and interdisciplinarity. Initially structured around a more general approach to environmental studies, the major was transformed as faculty responded to the growing need for more focused academic pathways. Working closely with Directors of Undergraduate Studies, faculty colleagues, program managers, and students, Professor Wargo established ten concentrations within the major—each designed to give students the knowledge to confront environmental issues through a strategic and rigorous academic lens.
Though stepping down as Chair, Professor Wargo will continue to teach in both YSE and Yale College, while pursuing research focused on environmental threats to human health.
