Master of Science in Coastal Zone Management - Virtual Information Session

All right. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Jen Radwanski, and I am the associate director for graduate admissions here at Stockton University. And I'm joined by some of my amazing colleagues in the Master of Science and Coastal Zone Management program, who are here to tell you more about their program here at Stockton and to give you some insight of why you should apply for this program and come and join us.

A couple of just little things. We do have a chat feature.

If you are watching this as a pre recorded session though we're going to give you some contact information at the end of this session. So hang tight, you can hold your questions towards the end and we will give you that contact information to send us any questions you have. But without further ado I am going to turn things over to professor for Herbert and Professor Khan to give you an amazing overview of our coastal zone management graduate program, so taking away friends.

Alright, thank you, Jen and welcome everyone who's listening live or later. So I'm doctor Anna Pfeiffer, Herbert and I'll kick us off with a little bit of introduction. And so we are here to talk about the coastal zone management graduate program which is one of the newer graduate tracks at Stockton. Before we get into the details of the program, I want to talk for a minute about what coastal zone management means and why it might be important.

So coastal zone management is an area that combines kind of science and policy and law and management into one kind of integrated field. And this field of study or work comes about because our coastal regions, the edges of our land or the land meets the ocean are really critical natural resources for us. So they're tied to a lot of things of economic and cultural importance such as fisheries.

And energy production, housing, recreation and tourism, and also cultural ties. So for millennia, people have recognized the importance of coastal regions. At the same time, these coastal regions are in areas with growing populations and lots of development of the landscape, use of the land, which leads to environmental pollution and the stresses that come from a changing climate and sea level.

Has. So we have important resources and those resources are experiencing changes and stressors. So a coastal zone management, coastal zone manager would try to put those things together to solve some of those problems in order to make sure that the natural resources kind of continue to be around for all of us to enjoy. And going back to the 1970s in the United States, there is a law that's led to a lot of the coastal zone management activity is called.

The coastal Zone Management Act and justice. One important excerpt from that law is that the act says that the purpose of the the law managing coastal areas is to preserve, protect, develop, and where possible, restore and enhance the resources of the nation's coastal zone. So from that, there are lots of structures within federal, state, and local governments that require the attention to.

These important coastal areas, so being a coastal zone manager that we'll talk later about careers, but it can mean a lot of different directions that all try to put together our social and ecological knowledge with knowledge about engineering and natural science and laws and regulation so that we can try to address some of the coming and ongoing complex problems that occur in the coastal zone.

So lots of exciting potentials for studying within coastal zone management.

So our graduate degree, which we call CCMT, that's just a shortcut for coastal zone management, was set up in order to prepare people to work professionally in this field of the coastal zone. So our program goals are that anyone coming out of this program has a solid understanding of the science side as well as the human and social and policy side of what a coastal zone management would need to do in a career.

So this includes understanding the combined physical, chemical, biological and geological processes that govern everything that goes on in this boundary between the ocean and the land, as well as kind of recognizing what humans do within the coastal zone. And because the fields of coastal zone management are so interdisciplinary and interactive, and it's really essential to have good communication skills. So written and.

Oral communication skills and teamwork abilities. So all of those things are built into our curriculum. So I'm going to pass it over next to Doctor Khan to continue with a little more detail on the program content.

Thank you Doctor Pfeiffer, but also thanks Jane for the kind introduction and.

Like Doctor Pfeiffer, Harvard was saying this program.

Targets a broader interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding and also looking at the applied side of it that the coastal zone managers would address. Keeping that in mind, we have two degree options and the certificate option in the program.

And then we are going to look at the courses that we have and how those are arranged.

So in the Masters program or the Master of Science program degree, we.

The requirements are that the students will complete 4 core courses.

And they would select five elective courses from a number of courses that are listed.

Uh, and they would also complete a thesis that takes typically 3 to 4 semesters to complete.

And then they will defend it orally in front of a committee. So these degree option is best for.

Students who want to continue academic research or careers that involve.

Research so this is the best for them.

Then the next degree option we have is a professional science masters. In these degree option, the students are required to complete 6 core courses and four elective courses. Instead of doing a thesis in these degree option, they complete a capstone project which takes one to two semesters typically and this option is best for students who want.

You.

Ohh.

Want to go into applied carriers right away?

Or professionals who want to add some value to their work. So for those students who really don't want to engage too much into research, academic research or do a lengthy thesis or more involved thesis, so this is better for them to have a professional science masters in a shorter amount of time and so on.

If the students don't want to do a thesis or capstone, they just want to have a certificate and which also also add adds value to their career.

These the shortest option is to get a certificate. So in these option they just need to complete the six core courses for the PSM degree. So the professionals who are working and want to expand their knowledge base and don't want to do a lot of academic research. So these are the three.

Options.

We have two degree options in and one certificate option in this program. If you look at the courses that we talked about, South on the left, we have the six courses listed as the core.

Of these, the first four courses are the core courses for the Masters program.

And the six? All six are the core courses for the Capstone, Capstone and certificate options.

Uh.

The last two courses project management and professional, writing their core courses for the PSM degree, but they are electives for the Masters program.

Now on the right, we have listed a few more popular courses like the Coastal Engineering Principles, hydrographic instrumentation and surveys, watershed management, statistical analysis and Environmental Quality.

And if we look at the breadth of these courses, you will probably have an idea about the.

Of the interdisciplinarity and holistic target of the program that Doctor Pfeiffer Harvard mentioned.

So and if you look at the full.

Uh.

If you look at the the other options that we have.

For the electives.

If you go to the website and then.

Look at the curriculum.

And by the way, on this website we have other tabs that gives you a lot of information about the program that mentioned criteria, FAQ's and career options and so on. But let's for now focus on the curriculum.

And short descriptions of the three options that we just discussed. And if you Scroll down on the left, you have those core courses listed on the right for the core courses for the Ms. degree option.

And then the electives are on the line on the left, so you'll find all the electives that you can take.

And other requirements and descriptions there.

So this website has a lot of information, very useful information about the program that you can probably visit at a later time.

OK, so with that description.

Of the courses and the program I handed back to Doctor Pfeiffer Albert.

You're probably muted.

Alright, am I unmuted now?

You're good now.

All right. That's the nature of these presentations. So, so Doctor Khan mentioned the that two of our tracks, the Master of Science and the Professional Science Masters, both involve a research product with the master thesis being a much more involved extended research project that's then written up in a professional format. So I want to talk a little bit about both the faculty involved in the program and the type of research.

That the faculty due and give you some examples of some of our current students and what sorts of research they're working on to give some ideas. We'll talk about admissions criteria later. And I'll emphasize right now that especially for our Master of Science Track, it's really critical that applicants identify an area of research that fits within the kind of expertise that we have in the program so that we can identify a good set of advisors for that research.

So on this list, this is not all of the faculty that might be involved, but these are some examples of some of the core faculty research and expertise of professors and staff that are affiliated with the coastal zone management program. And so Doctor Khan works on topics related to coastal resilience and nature based solutions and coupled human natural systems.

We have doctor Moskovski who is a Marine geologist and works on coastal sedimentary processes, so thinking about movements of sand and other types of sediment within our coastal areas, as well as how storms impact salt marshes, which are important coastal protective habitat. I work in coastal physical oceanography, so I study tidal currents and waves and processes of changing water flow.

In the open coast as well as the estuaries or inland bays.

We have Doctor Straub who works in biology and as well as underwater mapping and we have Doctor Sullivan who works with fisheries and fish ecology. So working with both the fish biology and and the social side of fisheries as an industry. And then we have a Research Center called the Stockton Coastal Research Center that's closely aligned with our program with the interim director Kim McKenna.

Directing a number of staff and extensive research projects in the area of coastal geology. They work a lot on beach profiling and studying changes on the shoreline, as well as projects that work in on restoring coastal habitats. So that should give you an idea of some of the breadth of our the types of research that we can support.

And then moving into some examples of students. So our program has, we have our first set of Master of Science students busily working on their thesis proposals currently as well as students in our professional science masters putting together some of their capstone research. So we're really excited to be kind of shepherding some of these students through for the first time. And so to give some examples of what those students are working on, we have students, so the picture that's in the upper right.

Is showing a scientist collecting seal ****. So that is seal excrement which can be used to learn a lot about the what the seals are eating. And that's used for a student project looking at harbor seals that come into our bays and getting an idea of how some of their feeding and winter time behavior before some planned offshore wind farm development happens.

And we have another student who's studying at heavy metals which are a pollutant when in high amounts and concentrations of those heavy metals in some of the coastal marshes. So in a good example of the marsh would be the middle picture on the right. Another student is studying shore protection structures, so engineered devices that can help prevent or slow down erosion of the shoreline and what sort of impact those structures might have on.

Horseshoe crabs.

And related to that, so that area of research, we have a couple students involved in that, another one looking at the, how well those protection structures are protecting the shoreline from erosion and other kinds of change. And then another example would be using computer models to study water flow and movement of sediment from place to place in some of our local waters such as Delaware Bay.

And Doctor Khan, do you want to add anything on some of the student research that's going on?

Yeah. I think these are exciting projects that we are seeing. Starting with the first project, it is close to completion. I think the first student that Doctor Pfeiffer Hubbard mentioned is going to start writing her thesis very soon. And also the second topic that we are seeing that student is also almost completing.

Their research and we'll start writing the thesis. So these are very exciting projects, the the last two or three that these are at the proposal writing stage at this moment.

And we're seeing very good responses from the students themselves. They're really excited about their projects and they really like the interdisciplinary breadth of their thesis. So they're not looking only at, for example, only at the horseshoe crab habitat, but also they're linking these to the physical systems or the structures and their effectiveness, how they.

Interact with the habitats. So these are good examples to show the the breadth and interdisciplinarity of the program and the students after completing their courses or some of them are taking other courses at this moment.

But they their feedback is that this course is gave them a lot of breath in the knowledge that we actually want to see in our students as coastal managers. So now we are also very happy to see the reflection of these courses and the curriculum in the students research. So we really look forward to this and the completion of this projects.

Yeah, and that's a great point about courses. So the students came up with these ideas. These are student generated ideas that the faculty helped to guide and advise directions to make sure that they're going in a productive angle. But the students really have a lot of choice in what they study. So some students enter the program with a really clear idea of a research project. Others have a some general ideas and then through the courses that Doctor Khan.

Mentioned kind of refine some of that background knowledge and so they can come up with some strong projects. So as Doctor Khan mentioned we're we're quite excited and proud of the students that are moving along well in this in their research.

So you also might be interested in what you can do with a degree in coastal zone management. As we've been indicating, there's a lot of potential pathways you can take with this degree. A lot of times the people that are might be interested in entering this either already work in some sort of management such as a state agency or are interested in going into that angle, so.

There's a long list on here. I won't read the whole thing, but I'll just point out a few kind of different directions that can be taken. So a general job title that fits well with this degree would be an environmental scientist. So someone studying either the.

Basic science of what happens in our environment, coastal environments or the applied application so that a conservation type field?

People might specifically be working on restoration of habitat, so something like a marsh restoration ecologist or project manager would fit in that category.

Someone might focus more on some of the science of, say, coastal oceanography or coastal wetlands. So some of the aspects of our coastal ecosystems from a scientific research perspective or might go into a field of consulting. So we see the direction that our students are planning to take with their degree range from kind of continuing in an academic track to working.

In each governmental agencies or non governmental organizations that are focused on the restoration and conservation of marine resources and in the private sector there's also a consultancy angles that can be taken with this degree.

Alright. So we'll invite Jen back into talk a bit from the admissions perspective on how you would apply.

Awesome. Thank you both so much. It was a really great overview and I hope that our audience has gotten really excited about wanting to apply and become a part of this program and the important work that you all do. So let's talk a little bit more about how that happens. There are specific admissions criteria which you'll see listed here and we'll also show you where you can find this information on our website. So you don't need to practically take notes. We'll show you exactly how to access it. But just wanted to review it with you all quickly. So first, you do have to have a baccalaureate degree from a regionally accredited.

Institution with an environmentally related major Azure background.

There is a direct entry application process for Stockton students who have completed their degree within the first year. So it's with one year of graduating or if you're planning on graduating this upcoming May. That application process is a little bit more, it's a little different. It's a little bit more simplified and we'll talk you through where the information is for that. But the criteria for that specifically is a 3.25 GPA. We waive the application fee waiver and there is also a separate essay that goes along with that and we'll show you where you can find.

Information in just a second. Next, there is an application fee if you're doing the regular application, so be aware of that. And here are the requirements for the general application. Another graduate essay, 3 letters of recommendation. We always recommend that these are folks who can speak to your academic success. So you know, even if your next door neighbor has known you for 20 years and can speak to your credibility and your loyalty. And you know, the fact that you helped to take the trash out. That's wonderful, but we really are looking for folks.

You can talk about your experience in the classroom. You can talk about maybe your work ethic if you are already working in the field, you know in particularly supervisor, so someone of that nature.

Next we have a copy of your resume must also be uploaded and then we also need official transcripts from every institution you attended. So just another example I like to give, if you attended, you know, a state institution, a four year institution here in New Jersey, but you went to a Community College before that, we would need transcripts sent from both institutions, both the four year institution where you completed your bachelor's degree as well as any other institution, so whether you transferred.

From again, a Community College, a four year college, all of those would need to be sent to us and I again, I'll show you that in just a moment of where you can see that. And then lastly, the GRE is optional. So let's take a peek and Doctor Khan and Doctor Pfeiffer. Herbert, can you see me scrolling through this? Is your slide moving at all or am I just seeing it on my end? Just curious.

No, we can't see it move.

No.

OK. So I just want to make sure we wanted to see what our audience saw. So it looks like although I am scrolling through, you'll only be able to see the top part of this page. But that's OK because I want to talk you through just a few pieces on this page and we'll give you the link on the next slide are all the pieces we talked about. The admissions Criteria tab is there just below this image, we also have the information about the curriculum that we covered. And then the other piece that I just wanted to highlight is, are you able to see the financial information now?

Did that showing up for you all?

No.

Nope. Well, that's OK because you can, you will see on the left hand side, it does say financial information that gives you the cost breakdown for in state, out of state, tuition per credit. And I always just like to highlight that for all of our attendees. So with that being said, the way that you can view this website is the website therestockton.edu, back slash, graduate or grad, either one will take you to our site. Our contact information is there too for all of us if you have additional.

Questions as well as the program website at the top.

So if you do have other things that if you're watching this presentation, you'd like like to talk further, you'd like to talk about research opportunities, you'd like to talk about the application process, we'd all be happy to assist you with that. So please don't hesitate to reach out. And with that being said, I want to see is there anything else that Doctor Khan and Doctor Pfeiffer Herbert you'd like to add to to the conclusion of our program before we wrap up.

So I'll just add just to emphasize in the application process particularly for students who are applying for the Master of Science track that more research having one, we really highly recommend getting in touch with us before you apply and that so that you can we can guide you a little bit on kind of writing about your research directions in your application. So you can kind of check in with us with some ideas we can help guide you to potential advisors.

And that is a really important part that we look for in the essays that for any of the tracks that you've kind of articulated why you want to do this degree and if you're working in one of those tracks involving a research project that you have a general idea and direction that we can see in your essay.

Yeah, I'd I'd like to emphasize the same point job just get in touch with us directly. I either doctor Pfeiffer, Harvard or me directly, so we can guide you better into the program how to apply things like that and then we can have it connected maybe with Jen if we had more specific questions about financial aid or admissions process and so on. So, but get in touch with us and we can guide you better probably another announcement.

He wanted to make Jen about the international students who like to would you like to do that?

Yeah.

Yes, thank you. Umm, if, if you are happening, if you're watching this and happen to be an international student, I did want to let you all know this program is not currently taking applications for international applicants. However, we would encourage you to look at our professional Science Masters degree in environmental science. That program does accept international applications and these two programs work very, very closely together, which is really nice. And so please feel free to check that out on our website if you are watching this as an international student.

Thank you. Thank you for reminding me of that. I appreciate it.

Alright, so just to wrap up, you know, if you took nothing else from this, I hope that you have seen the dedication and the commitment that our faculty have to this program. One of the best things about Stockton and our graduate programs are our faculty. They, they care so much about their students and working alongside them and making sure that they succeed and you've heard that through this presentation and also their commitment to talking with potential students as well. So I want to thank you both very much for being here.

Yeah, I presenting and sharing more about your work and how students can get involved here at Stockton in your program and I look forward to working with you both again soon and we look forward to seeing all of your applications coming in. I hope everyone has a great day and thank you so much for watching. Take care.

Thanks, Jim. Take care.

By.

Goodbye.