UV-color selection and subsequent spectroscopic follow-up have enabled the assembly of statistical samples of star-forming galaxies at z~2-3. Here we present two examples of the relationship between these galaxies and their environments. First, we discuss new results from deep rest-frame UV spectroscopy of star-forming galaxies at z~3. These observations, of unprecedented depth in the Lyman continuum region, have yielded the first direct detection of escaping ionizing radiation from individual galaxies in the early universe. The detection can be used to quantify the escape fraction of ionizing from star-forming galaxies, crucial for constructing models of the reionization of the universe and for understanding the physical state of the intergalactic medium (IGM). We then turn to a search at z~2 for the seeds of the galaxy morphology-density relation, which has been observed out to at least z~1. A combination of large spectroscopic samples and new non-parametric techniques for analyzing the morphologies of distant galaxies allows for the first robust investigation of galaxy morphology as a function of environment at z>1.5.