This fall at Turning Green, we are launching our first-ever global independent study program for higher education students called Project Green Course. The Course is a space of environmental education, climate action and community building for students around the world to come together, learn and grow, as they develop their leadership skills and activist voices in the environmental movement. For the final six weeks, students will collaborate on Climate Action Projects to design, create, and implement campaigns to benefit their communities.
“The purpose of this course is to bring a global collective of students who care about our planet together in a communal context for conversations and to learn from, and inspire one another during a challenging moment in time on planet Earth,” says PGCourse facilitator Natasha Mmonatau.
A college level course has been a Turning Green dream for a long time. Last year during Project Green Challenge, students were asked to scour the planet for sustainability courses that they would want to take and then to craft their own concepts for a class. Project Green Course is the materialization of these ideas – a 15-week independent study for students from five continents to offer equal access to information and resources and to mobilize next generation leaders around climate action.
“Students from all walks of life and nations should have the opportunity to acquire education, feel represented, and be supported as emerging leaders. If you inspire the next generation to see opportunities, steward their visions, and help them hone their superpowers around environmental leadership, then they will change the course of our future,” says Judi.
The inaugural Course starting this fall will be made up of 24 undergraduate, master’s, law, and Ph.D. students with passion, diverse experience and a commitment to addressing environmental issues in their home communities.
Laura Rambaran-Seepersad is a graduate student at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, and spends most of her time working to educate Caribbean youth in science, technology, health and safety, and environmentalism.
Sanjana Acharya is in the Master’s Program at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India and is involved in organizing and research for environmental justice movements, public policy and with sustainability organizations.
Clinton Ezeigwe is a law student at Ebonyi State University in Nigeria, and coordinates youth engagement in water, sanitation and hygiene campaigns.
As another student, Takunda Tanyanyiwa, put it, “Climate change in the grassroots is rich with local innovative solutions that can be impactful at a global level. It is my hope that this course will provide that bridge with knowledge, networks, and approaches. Where possible, I would replicate those in rural Zimbabwean communities and influence policy at a national level.”
Laura, Sanjana, Clinton and Takunda are four of the inspiring members of the inaugural cohort of PGCourse.
We look forward to experiencing all of the rich conversations and new perspectives among everyone involved — including a brilliant group of professors, academics, lecturers, facilitators, and teaching assistants — and see how lives will change within and beyond the students and class sessions. PGCourse is unlike any other program in its global nature, online nature, advisors and guest speakers, and especially the caliber and drive of student participants.
It all begins on August 30!
