Trainers' Training: Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience
This trainers’ training invited the University of California (UC) community to scale the Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience to all ten campuses, in line with the goals of the Student Engagement working group of the UC President’s Global Climate Leadership Council.
About the Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience
Developed at UC Irvine, the Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience was a three-day residential program that provided a select cohort of incoming first year and transfer students with a meaningful introduction to:
- their campus' carbon neutrality, sustainability, food action, and environmental justice communities;
- ways that scholarship and practice at the UC address issues of climate and ecological crisis, social equity, and regenerative economy;
- leadership modalities that develop inner awareness as well as deepen understanding of the interdependence of all life, intersectionality, cultural narratives, collaborative problem solving, and systems thinking;
- tools for stepping into action; and
- opportunities to engage as they enter student life.
The Institute's learning outcomes were shaped by these aims. The Institute drew upon pedagogies and practices from multiple sources, some of which are described here and here.
The Institute has its roots in UC Irvine's Student Institute for Sustainability Leadership (SISL). Many SISL alumni have gone on to become key campus leaders in these areas and have shaped their academic pursuits accordingly. SISL is facilitated by the UCI Sustainability Resource Center (SRC). SRC is a collaboration among UCI Community Resilience Projects, Student Affairs, Student Housing, and Division of Undergraduate Education. SRC created SISL in 2013 and joined in partnership with the international non-governmental organization SERES in 2015 to update the training design. From these roots, UCI Community Resilience Projects began collaboration with training partner Aryeh Shell in 2017 to design the Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience.
About the Trainers’ Training
The 2018 Trainers' Training enabled a core group of interested staff and faculty from across the UC campuses to conduct a pilot Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience on their campus in 2018-19. The Trainers’ Training was put together by UCI Community Resilience Projects, a learning community that fosters equity-oriented and inclusive solutions to our climate challenges. We aimed to build a UC-wide cohort of faculty and staff who seek community in experiential educational approaches that deepen our students’ understandings of the ways that climate change, racism and all social injustice, economic inequality, and our challenged democracy are connected. The Trainers' Training also provided us a chance to build our students’ toolkits for transformative action in ways that connect across these issues. The Trainers' Training included opportunities for skills-sharing among trainees.
The Trainers' Training was held in two sessions, with each session taking place during a 2.5-day residential retreat.
Session 1 enabled trainees to experience the Institute as a participant cohort while engaging in a discussion on the pedagogy, facilitation skills, and theory of change.
Session 2 enabled trainees to practice facilitating multiple modules with feedback, tailor material for their campus, and innovate with their colleagues. They also developed an action plan for implementing their pilot Institute.
Full participation in both training sessions was required. Trainees received a curriculum manual and all handouts, notes, and resources required to run the Institute on their campus. Seed funds and modest stipends to conduct one pilot was provided to each UC campus from which two faculty and/or professional staff members complete the trainers' training. UCI Community Resilience Projects' Abby Reyes and Aryeh Shell led the trainers' training.
Trainers’ Training 2018
Trainees were required to complete both sessions.
Trainers’ Training Details
For more information, please email communityresilience@uci.edu.
Resources
The Student Leadership Institute for Climate Resilience has roots in UCI's SISL and was sponsored by the UC Global Climate Leadership Council: