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Webinar: Climate Action Unbound: A New Curricular Model Driving Institutional Change

September 18 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT

Equipping students with both the knowledge and skills to be effective change agents is essential to solving the climate crisis. The inaugural Climate Action Semester Unbound at Hampshire College offered students a deep dive into sustainable changemaking. Students spent a full semester (12 hours per week) researching, developing, and drafting a new Climate Action Plan (CAP) for Hampshire. Students developed project and community engagement skills as they led a campus input process and wrote iterative versions of the CAP. Guest instructors, staff collaborators, field trips (including to the AASHE conference!), and working with off-campus partners took this semester out of the classroom and into the community.

The semester included an intro to climate Change, policy, and systems, “”crash course”” in creating effective institutional change, learning around building an equitable and inclusive community process, and communication best practices for changemakers. Crucially, the intensive commitment of the semester allowed the curriculum to include time for students to foster relationships with collaborators across campus, grow skills in community engagement and facilitation, and build community around shared work with peers and course leaders.

This webinar will share how the Climate Action Unbound experience was developed, and share stories of the successes and challenges of building a semester around a collaborative community project. You’ll hear from the faculty and staff co-facilitators, along with students from the class, to share each of our unique learning experiences and takeaways.

Presenters

Sara Draper, Sustainability Manager, Hampshire College

Sara is a climate action professional and outdoor enthusiast. As Sustainability Manager at Hampshire College, she helps the campus community connect to sustainability through courses, programs, and projects. Her current area of work is exploring the community and climate impacts of land use.

The built environment is Sara’s sweet spot. Previously the director of the R.W. Kern Center, she champions Living Buildings as models for positive environmental change. Sara has worked as a project coordinator and sustainability strategist at Bruner/Cott Architects, and has a Masters in Historic Building Conservation from the University of Bath in England. She is an active member of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and has presented on sustainable design and environmental engagement through both organizations.

You will often find Sara out on the trails mountain biking, running, and hiking. Sara is currently on the board of the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, an environmental education non-profit in Amherst.”

Steve Roof, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, Hampshire College

Professor Steve Roof’s teaching and research focus environmental issues including climate change, pollution, land management, and solutions like renewable energy and local climate action. He has researched climate change and its impacts in the Arctic for over 20 years. In his classes and projects, he consciously integrates the scientific, political, and social aspects of environmental problems and their solutions. He teaches and supervises projects in geology, climate change, land use planning, and renewable energy development.