The Sustainable and Climate Ready Schools Administrative Fellowship Program supports educational leaders to successfully drive environmental transformation across their school community, and meet the increasing curricular and facilities mandates related to environmental literacy/sustainability and climate resiliency. This knowledge to action fellowship focuses on successfully managing change through the development and implementation of a project that does one or more of the following:
- Greens one aspect of their school/district's facilities and operations, and utilizes these efforts in the curriculum as a laboratory for learning;
- Develops and implements a strategic plan for integrating environmental literacy into the curriculum and instruction for all students at every grade level;
- Supports a project that prepares the school/district to be Climate Ready in one focus area (high heat, floods, wildfires, trauma-informed practices for climate change, etc).
Core Components
This fellowship has three core components that fellows must complete in order to be eligible for a final stipend, mini-grants, and continuing education units (CEUs). Find details about each of these components below.
Workshops and Ongoing Learning
The monthly workshops, asynchronous learning, and coaching sessions are where the majority of program objectives take place (i.e. strengthening knowledge base, skill-building, network creation, and project support).
Community Impact Project
Projects are aligned to a focus area pathway, listed below, that fellows chose during the application process. The project is a change management effort that advances sustainability and/or climate resiliency within the fellow's school community. At the start of this project, fellows will complete a baseline assessment. Coaches will then guide fellows to develop and implement a plan of action from this assessment, and measure impact.
Final Deliverables
All participants of the program will submit a reflection case study and complete an oral presentation.
Focus Area Pathways
Fellows in the Sustainable and Climate Resilient Schools Administrator Fellowship must choose a focus area pathway, which will become the central focus area of the fellow’s Community Impact Project. These pathways allow for increased environmental literacy and action across school communities and districts. See a list of focus area pathways below, with research support and sample projects.
Focus Area |
Sample Projects: Campus as a Laboratory for Learning |
---|---|
Zero Waste and Sustainable Food |
|
Living Schoolyards (Land-Based Ecosystems and Grounds) |
|
Water Resiliency |
|
Energy and Transportation Resiliency |
|
Past Cohort information and Case Study Examples from Program Alumni
To learn more about the content and activities for past cohorts visit the Administrative Program Website, and to see examples of case studies from past fellows visit the 2020 Cohort Page or the 2021 Cohort Page.
Julie Hilborn
Coordinator, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability
Email: jhilborn@smcoe.org
Phone: (650) 802-5406