Expanded education helps mitigate pandemic's insecurity

The Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas are some of the most underserved areas in the state in terms of access to a four-year college degree, and this deficit takes on even more urgency as the COVID-19 pandemic has starkly exposed how important educational attainment is to job security.

For the past 25 years, Western’s Huxley College of the Environment, the first interdisciplinary college of the environment in the United States, has provided residents of the Peninsulas with access to bachelor’s degrees in environmental policy and environmental science.

Since then, working closely with local partners from Olympic College branches in Poulsbo and Bremerton and Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Western has expanded access to bachelor’s degrees in various disciplines, including Business Administration, Business and Sustainability, Cybersecurity, Early Childhood Education, Education with Dual Endorsements in Elementary and Special Education, Human Services and Multidisciplinary Studies.