High performing U-M sophomores with a passion for the environment and sustainability are invited to apply for the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute’s Undergraduate Sustainability Scholars Program until Jan. 17.
In collaboration with seven U-M schools and colleges, the Sustainability Scholars Program accepts up to 30 sophomores each year to pursue an 11-credit course sequence and related co-curricular activities during their junior and senior years.
The Sustainability Scholars Program offers a variety of advantages to students who are accepted, including the following:
• Up to $3,000 toward a field-based sustainability course or experience in a variety of locations, including Detroit, Wyoming, Costa Rica, Kenya and China
• Priority admittance into Graham-supported, field-based sustainability courses
• Hands-on skill development and leadership training
• Unique and ongoing opportunities to interact and engage with other sustainability-minded U-M students
• Official acknowledgement of academic accomplishment on their U-M transcript (in participating schools and colleges) and a certificate from the Graham Institute
“The underlying premise of the Sustainability Scholars Program is that solutions to global unsustainability require a new generation of critical thinkers who embrace complexity, interconnectedness, uncertainty and change,” says Graham Institute Education Director Mike Shriberg, who teaches the Sustainability and the Campus class, which is required for the program.
“Through a series of leadership and skill building exercises, interdisciplinary coursework and field-based studies, this program prepares students to become the kind of sustainability leaders the world needs in this pivotal time in human history.”
Poonam Dagli, a senior in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business who is finishing her final year as a Sustainability Scholar, says the Sustainability Scholars Program has helped her to thrive at the university.
“The scholars program has been incredibly important to me because it enabled me to do something I am really passionate about,” she says, “It’s about being part of a community built around sustainability where everyone is super friendly and smart at the same time. It really has been an incredible environment in which to thrive.”
Samantha Schiebold, a physics senior, Program in the Environment minor and Sustainability Scholar, shares similar sentiments.
“The Graham Sustainability Scholars Program has had a profound influence on my thinking and actions regarding sustainability,” she says. “The course offerings are tremendous, but perhaps more important are the relationships that develop between peers who come from a variety of intellectual and social backgrounds, yet who are all motivated to actualize sustainability.
Details about the program, eligibility requirements and an online application (due Jan. 17) are available in the Student Programs section of the Graham Institute website at www.graham.umich.edu. Students are required to submit references as part of their application.
