See full details at https://environment.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/EfS-Fellowship-Equity-Lens.pdf

Purpose of the Fellowship The EfS Fellowship | Equity Lens provides a personal and professional growth pathway for college, grad school, or early-career Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) environmental educators, environmental scientists, or environmental justice advocates using the principles and practices of Educating for Sustainability (EfS).

As a paid practicum, Fellows serve the organizational learning needs of Sustainability Ambassadors by:

1. Mentoring middle and high school student Ambassadors in developing the project management and communication skills they need to design impact projects, track impact relative to community performance measures, and create impact stories.

2. Collaborating with middle and high school teachers in designing, implementing, and evaluating problem-based, place-based learning (PBL) pathways that meet academic standards in context of meeting community performance measures.

3. Developing, expanding, and strengthening community learning partnerships through the principles and practices of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD).

Opportunity – Paid Practicum

•  $20/hour 10-15 hours per/week for 12 months, October through September
•  Flexible hours, mostly remote, with some standing meetings, youth trainings, Equity Circles, PBL Curriculum Design Labs, and Field Experiences
• Personal and professional mentoring with staff and network of Sustainable Systems Coaches

About Us

MISSION: Rapidly advance a sustainable future.

1. Empower YOUTH to catalyze community sustainability.

2. Empower TEACHERS to integrate rigor with relevance for real-world impact.

3. Empower COMMUNITY to drive collective impact.

Sustainability Ambassadors is building its structures and practices around the principles of an evolutionary organization. We are learning how to design systems that decentralize decision making, adapt programs and actions to support localized needs, learn rapidly as a broad coalition of empowered change makers, and practice collective impact by measuring program efficacy in context of improved community conditions.

Our primary work is to learn, to organize in such a way as to cultivate, nurture and celebrate the unique contributions of all participants and partners towards rapidly advancing a sustainable future

Sustainability Ambassadors is a professional development program for student leaders, teacher leaders and community leaders committed to the shared mission.

Our work uses real-world performance measures as both entry point and outcome for problem-based, place-based curriculum design. This approach motivates students to apply academic excellence in context of community impact.

Many of the technical, financial, and policy solutions already exist. We know what to do. The moral call to action is clear. We need to start with these students, these teachers, this school district, this city, these watersheds.

Our year-round professional training program for over 50 youth leaders follows our elegant 4P Syllabus, coaching students in Policy analysis, Performance assessment, Project management, and Public speaking. We support paid Project Manager Internships on impact project design, impact tracking, and impact storytelling. Our peer-to-peer leadership development model builds a legacy of skill development in team building and community impact, from middle school through college and beyond into the green jobs workforce.

We facilitate annual cohorts of Teacher Fellows developing problem-based, place-based (PBL) curriculum pathways that align academic rigor with community relevance and stakeholder relationship building. We offer a year-round suite of PBL Curriculum Design Labs serving over 400 teachers a year. Our professional development program for teachers supports district-wide, systems change aligned with the National Action Plan for Educating for Sustainability.

Our collaborative learning relationships with leaders in local government and industry are organized around the goals and performance measures of city and county Climate Action Plans and Puget Sound ecosystem recovery. We engage with an expanding network of Sustainable Systems Coaches who actively mentor impact project design for our student Ambassadors, and provide content expertise and problem-solving insights for our Teacher Fellows and PBL Curriculum Design Labs.

Our home geography is King County with an expanding reach into Snohomish and Pierce Counties.

We focus on middle school and high school youth and the school districts that guide their learning, as well as the community stakeholders, especially local government and business leaders who are relying on the next generation to be engaged voters, informed taxpayers, conscious consumers, and employees who can create and lead sustainability initiatives.

We believe that the community is the curriculum and that by educating for sustainability we can drive collective impact towards a significantly more promising and sustainable future for all.

About You 

• BIPOC (white applicants are a second priority for selection) 
• Undergrad, grad student, or early career professional 
• Interested in a career path related to environmental education, environmental science, or environmental justice 
• Natural leader, group facilitator, team builder 
• Powerful communicator: researching, writing, presenting 
• Passionate about leading on sustainable systems change through an equity lens 
• Love mentoring middle school and high school youth on agency, voice, and impact 
• Can model/lead/facilitate student teams on a range of impact campaigns 
• Keenly interested in the art and craft of PBL curriculum design (developing lessons is fun) 
• Would like to see the end of bell schedules, textbook teaching, and siloed academic courses 
• Fascinated by the principles and practices of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) 
• Passionate about analyzing and shaping institutional culture change within and among schools, communities, local government, and business interests for collective impact 
• Curious about how organizations learn and evolve 
• Committed to leading by example with your own personal sustainability choices and daily habits (climate action starts with me)

It would be a plus if you… 

• Are good at spoken word, poetry, short fiction writing, songwriting, sound recording 
• Enjoy video storytelling, storyboarding, editing, (including simple but brilliant forms of cell phone cinematography, TikTok, Instagram video) 
• Have a flair for graphic design, web development, infographics (related software familiarity) 
• Love Salmon and Orca like your brother and sister 
• Know your watershed address

What does a Fellow do?

Personal and Professional Mentoring

1. Schedule three, 1-hr. weekly sessions (Zoom) with the Director of Learning to “plan the work and work the plan” in context of your own personal and professional growth.

Empower YOUTH to catalyze community sustainability.

2. Attend weekly ALL HANDS student Ambassador meetings (1 hr. Monday evenings, Zoom)

3. Design and facilitate an equity lens integrated into all SA student trainings.

4. Facilitate youth “Equity Circles” exploring personal learning on power and privilege.

5. Develop your own Impact Project to model the IP3 process: impact project design, impact tracking relative to community performance measures, and impact storytelling.

6. Mentor 3-5 student teams working on their own IP3 process.

7. Support annual (Fall) Peer-to-Peer Impact Project Design Trainings.

8. Support the development of new, youth-led City Teams of student Ambassadors in south King County and Seattle.

9. Support quarterly, youth-led Field Experiences (in person).

10. Support quarterly, youth-led “Carrot Mobs” mass consumer purchasing power campaigns (reverse boycotts).

11. Support annual, youth-led, crowd-source fundraising for organizational or community benefit.

Empower TEACHERS to integrate rigor with relevance for real-world impact.

1. Participate in selected PBL Curriculum Design Labs to learn the issues and develop PBL pedagogical insights.

2. Design and facilitate an equity lens integrated into all PBL Curriculum Design Labs.

3. Support the curation or creation of new curriculum resources for PBL Lessons.

4. Support the design, publication, and dissemination of completed PBL Lesson Plans.

Empower COMMUNITY to drive collective impact.

1. Lead SA students, teachers, and coaches on learning about, listening to, and aligning with local environment justice organizations, as well as equity initiatives developed within government, school, and business sectors.

2. Identify opportunities to participate in or directly facilitate Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD).

3. Support outreach and learning by and for school district Equity Directors.

4. Participate in quarterly SA Community Learning Events.

Application Process – Deadline October 1 (or until filled)

1. Compose a cover letter that tells your story and why the EfS Fellowship is a good fit for you.

2. Share your resume (include a couple strong references)

3. Email your materials to: Peter Donaldson, Director of Learning peter@sustainabilityambassadors.org

4. Candidates who are a good fit will be invited to an in-depth zoom interview

5. Onboarding will happen in early October

6. Then we change the world a little bit