Environmental Policy Clinic

Each year in the Environmental Policy Clinic, small teams of second-year Masters’ students tackle environmental policy and management challenges in collaboration with external partners. Through this experiential learning program, students bring their own training, ingenuity and time to these projects, and tap the deep interdisciplinary expertise available across UC Davis to deliver concrete, useful products that advance the work of their external partners.

The EPM program has developed the Policy Clinic as an integral part of the curriculum, giving students experience working on a project team project to address a current policy issue or natural resources management need. This helps prepare our students to develop the essential skills to solve multifaceted, multidisciplinary environmental issues before they enter the workforce. The Policy Clinic is also an opportunity for external partners to build a working relationship with the EPM program.

How it works: Prospective clients propose projects to the Clinic. We hope for a broad array of projects in terms of topics, disciplines, engagement opportunities, and required skill sets. Once final projects are selected and collaboratively scoped, teams of 4-5 students spend two quarters working closely with clients (including weekly meetings with a client-based supervisor) to develop final deliverables by June. An instructor oversees the process, and delivers concurrent course activities designed to support the students and clients. The academic year culminates in a symposium that celebrates the products, impacts, deep learning, and hard work of our students and their client partners.