A case study on the effectiveness of cocurricular interdisciplinary sustainability programming for graduate students to create sustainability leaders
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 7 June 2024
Issue publication date: 2 January 2025
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability-focused, cocurricular, interdisciplinary programming for graduate students at creating future leaders in sustainability, i.e. did interdisciplinary sustainability programming further prepared graduate students in sustainability leadership beyond the scope of the individual student academic programs from the perspective of the student participants.
Design/methodology/approach
The objective of the study was met by evaluating the University of Michigan Dow Sustainability Fellows Program. With a decade of graduate-student participation, surveys and interviews of Fellows alumni from 2013 to 2020 were used to assess the program impact on creating sustainability leaders. Opportunities for program reflections were included through prompted open-ended questions.
Findings
A majority (88%) of the Fellows who responded to the survey agreed with the statement that their career path was positively affected by their participation in the program and that the cocurricular program provided opportunities to explore sustainability-related topics from perspectives they would not have experienced otherwise. The interdisciplinary aspect of the program and the focus on practical community sustainability projects were the most valued attributes of the cocurricular programming.
Research limitations/implications
Supporting cocurricular interdisciplinary programs requires significant resources and intentionality to engage diverse disciplines and diverse partner organizations.
Practical implications
Programs that provide experiential opportunities to build interdisciplinary team skills successfully enable graduate students to become leaders in sustainability fields in the workplace and in outreach and service.
Social implications
Cocurricular graduate student programming focused on community sustainability projects can successfully create valued learning experiences while simultaneously supporting communities with practical solutions to sustainability challenges.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first longitudinal assessment of the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary cocurricular programming on graduate student sustainability leadership outcomes. The results include feedback received from eight years of cocurricular programming.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Woo, E., Wooldridge, M. and LaPorte, E.A. (2024), “A case study on the effectiveness of cocurricular interdisciplinary sustainability programming for graduate students to create sustainability leaders”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-06-2023-0239, was published with the incorrect author affiliation details. This error was introduced in the production process and has now been corrected in the online version. The publisher sincerely apologises for this error and for any inconvenience caused.
This work was supported in part by the Dow Sustainability Fellows Program and the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan.
Citation
Woo, E., Wooldridge, M. and LaPorte, E.A. (2024), "A case study on the effectiveness of cocurricular interdisciplinary sustainability programming for graduate students to create sustainability leaders", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-06-2023-0239
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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