From Lecture Halls to Global Strategy: How My Undergraduate Journey Laid the Blueprint for a Global Career
As someone who is now recognized in global policy circles, invited to present at high-level defense briefings, and building intelligence systems that intersect with climate, conflict, and ESG, I often get asked:
“Where did it all begin?”
It didn’t begin in a polished think tank or in the halls of Capitol Hill.
It began in a public university in Utah, in back-to-back lectures on radicalization, ancient civilization, political instability, religion, and social collapse.
In 2011, I graduated with a Bachelor of Integrated Studies from Weber State University, concentrating in Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Science, with University Honors, Departmental Honors, and a 3.5 GPA at the time of degree conferral.
At the time, I didn’t know I was designing the intellectual skeleton of what would become:
The Predictive Sustainability Intelligence (PSI) platform, now under review by military and intelligence agencies
My book From Warming to Warfare, which has begun circulating among policymakers and think tanks
High-level climate and ESG consulting used by government ministries, multinational corporations, and international institutions
Development policy spanning North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the MENA region
Looking back, it’s clear:
My undergraduate journey wasn’t just a degree. It was a blueprint.
What I Studied — And Why It Still Matters
Sociology: Power, Deviance, and the Mechanics of Society
My sociology coursework centered on understanding how institutions shape behavior, and how individuals respond to, resist, or are shaped by structures of control.
Courses like:
Deviance and Social Control
Criminology
Social Change and Social Movements
Sociology of Religion
Consumer Society and Desire
...taught me to recognize the psychological and structural factors that lead people toward radicalization, unrest, consumption addiction, and institutional distrust — the same forces that now shape political instability and ESG risk globally.
I later applied these insights in my research on radical Islamist groups, creating frameworks that were used by the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies to understand ideological shifts and social drivers of extremism.
Anthropology: Civilizational Rise, Collapse, and Ritual Systems
Through Anthropology, I explored:
Why early civilizations emerged near rivers like the Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile
How myth and religious systems were shaped by environmental patterns
The role of language, ritual, and symbolism in sustaining or destabilizing social order
The collapse of civilizations due to resource depletion, internal inequality, and spiritual disintegration
Classes like:
Magic, Shamanism & Religion
Religions of the Ancient World
Archaeology of Early Civilizations
Language and Culture
Money & Power
…formed the foundation for what later became my geostrategic lens on climate migration, energy wars, and cultural resilience. These were not abstract theories. They became the basis of understanding how modern conflicts mirror ancient collapse narratives, and how future societies might avoid those same fates.
Today, I use that lens to build resilience models for cities, nations, and sectors vulnerable to climate risk and conflict.
Political Science: Power, Diplomacy, and Global Systems
I didn’t study politics through a domestic or partisan lens. I went deeper, pursuing:
U.S. Foreign Policy
International Law and Organization
Comparative Governments
Governments of Developing Nations
Foreign Policies of Major Powers
Directed Readings in Political Theory
I focused on how sovereignty, law, international norms, and strategic diplomacy influence the behavior of states, and what happens when those norms break down.
These studies became the early theoretical layer for:
My international development work
My ability to brief think tanks and defense actors
My critiques of how climate change acts as a multiplier for instability, especially in weak-state zones
And my books, which reframe the 21st century as an age of climate-driven, resource-triggered geopolitical tension
While I didn’t take constitutional law, I took something much more aligned with today’s reality, global system dynamics and the ethics of intervention.
Then vs. Now — A Comparative Table
Undergrad Focus
Real-World Application Today
Radical Islam & the West (Senior Capstone)
Used in defense and counter-extremism policy briefings
Money & Power (BIS Seminar)
Informed my $40B+ in climate development project planning
Social Movements & Religion
Guides ESG narrative frameworks and cultural change strategy
Civilizations and Collapse
Core to PSI’s predictive modeling of water, energy, and climate-triggered state failure
International Law & Foreign Policy
Now part of my consulting for USAID, AFDB, GSA, DoD, and other state actors
🎓 A Degree That Became a Destiny
I didn’t just graduate, I constructed a worldview across disciplines.
I took pieces of religion, power, myth, structure, collapse, and diplomacy — and built a lifelong framework for anticipating instability and architecting solutions.
That’s what I do now, every day, through:
My books
My ESG and climate risk consulting
My PSI platform
My work with government ministries, military subcontracting, and global development
Today, I’m enrolled in Harvard’s Global Development Practice Graduate Program, but that education builds on a much earlier foundation — one that was quietly powerful, intensely interdisciplinary, and deeply personal.
🧘♂️ Final Reflection:
“I took a class called Deviance and Social Control. Now I advise the very institutions that define what deviance and control mean.”
“I studied belief systems that rose with the Nile and fell with the Euphrates. Now I help modern cities and governments adapt to the same threats, only faster and more complex.”
“I didn’t go to an Ivy League school for my undergrad, I built the ideas they’re just now catching up to.”
This is the power of public education, interdisciplinary thinking, and refusing to be boxed into a silo.
This is what happens when you don’t just get a degree, but live the questions until you become the answer.
Thank you to the professors who challenged me, inspired me, and gave me room to think.
Your lessons shaped the systems I now help change.
—
Steven W. Pearce
Founder & CEO | PSCG
Illuminem | Harvard | Climate Security Strategist
📍 pscg.global | 📰 stevenwpearce.substack.com
Let’s Build a More Sustainable, Secure Future — Together
Pearce Sustainability Consulting Group (PSCG) is not your typical ESG firm.
We don’t just measure impact — we design foresight, bridge public and private systems, and deliver real-world solutions for governments, corporations, and multilateral institutions.
Led by Steven W. Pearce, an award-winning strategist, Harvard-trained development expert, and the creator of the groundbreaking Predictive Sustainability Intelligence (PSI) platform, PSCG operates at the intersection of:
Climate resilience & sustainability strategy
Geopolitics, ESG compliance, & risk mitigation
Development policy, conflict prevention, & systems transformation
Our mission is simple:
Simplifying Sustainability. Amplifying Impact.
With consulting experience across the U.S., North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Gulf, and Europe, and recognition from global platforms like Illuminem, PSCG is trusted by decision-makers who understand that the future must be both sustainable and secure.
Learn More & Connect
🔹 Website: pscg.global
🔹 Substack: stevenwpearce.substack.com
🔹 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stevenwpearce
🔹 Illuminem Profile: illuminem.com/illuminemvoicesprofile/steven-pearce
🔹 Email: swpearce@pscg.global
If you’re ready to future-proof your organization, design with purpose, or collaborate on climate security, ESG transformation, or sustainable development…
We’re ready. Let’s talk.