Global Youth Climate Summit Syllabus
July 12-23, 2021
Program date has passed. For up-to-date programs, please check the Climate Leaders Fellowship.
Instructor: Professor Alice Siu, Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy
Program Leaders: Salome Boseyawa, Carly Caldrone, Leba Digitaki, Scott Ingram, Evan Johnson, Jay Melone, Anna Quinn, Miriam Staley, Viliame Tui, Hollie Wolfinger and Patrick Ziemnik
🎥 Videos
📜 Course Overview
The Global Youth Climate Summit is a two-week intensive course created by Professor Alice Siu of the Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy in partnership with Rustic Pathways and The Rustic Pathways Foundation.
In this course, you’ll learn the strategies that have brought together divided groups and launched key innovations.
Climate change is one of the biggest issues facing our planet. To make change on a big issue, you need to do two things. First, you need to bridge opinions — it’s not enough to preach to the converted, you need to convince others to join. Second, you need to take innovative action. You don’t need highfalutin rhetoric; we need specific targeted plans launched by people who care.
Developing these crucial skills will be our mission for the next two weeks.
✏️ Course Objectives
By the end of this program, you will:
- Build connections with fellow change makers around the world
- Understand the strategies that can create meaningful dialogue with others who may not share our own opinion
- Challenge our own understandings and explore an opposing position
- Apply design thinking tools and a designer’s mindset to taking innovative action
- Demonstrate strengthened self-authorship and creative confidence through prototyping practices
⚠Warning
What makes this course unique is that it’s really practicing methods to influence change, and you’re learning about those methods through the lens of climate. We’re not here to lecture you or give you lots of facts about climate change since you probably already know a lot and you can find/get that content in lots of other places online.
Instead, we will learn an approach that facilitates meaningful dialogue between individuals and an approach to problem solving that creates innovative solutions.
With millions of engaged innovators like you, we will succeed.
📚 Course Materials
Note: You’ll receive access to the below the day before the program (July 11, 2021)
- Program Center: This is the home base for all content including blocks, case studies, links and sprint instructions.
- Discord: Discuss program takeaways and learnings and meet fellow change makers. You will receive an email invitation on July 11 to sign up for Discord.
- Program Workbook: Use this workbook to complete homework (reflection questions and the sprint) after each block.
💬 Course Participation
This is an intensive course, designed to engage actively with college level course material and put your learnings into action. Students who get the most out of this program are those who engage and participate with the community. This includes:
- Discussing program learnings and takeaways, and replying to other students via Discord
- Completing the sprint, so you can put your learnings into action
🧠Think Week
Think Week prepares you to be a better informed and engaged change maker as you convince others in the marketplace of ideas. Students will tackle a real-life deliberative democracy climate project using the method of Deliberative Polling. Students will gain the knowhow needed to drive effective discussions in their neighborhoods, schools and home communities. You’ll master the “why?” and “so what?” about leading people to a better exchange of ideas and perspectives.
🏃♀️Create Week
Create Week empowers you with the tools of human centered design lens as we tackle real-world impacts of climate change. You’ll learn to uncover problems in your community, transform your discoveries into actionable insights, generate lots of ideas to select the most viable, prototype an idea to make it real, scale the impact of your solution and tell the story and pitch it to others. (Don’t worry we’re going to practice together.)
We’ll break into small teams and embark on a project to lead tangible change. (We’ll pick the team). We’ll share more about the Create Week as we get closer.
✅ Course Completion
We provide certificates of completion to students who complete this course — this includes watching the videos and participating in the Create Week project. You’ll receive credentials at the end of the Program.
🎥 Recordings
Links to all the live session recordings and links to recordings and/or copies of the presentation documents from each pod’s prototype designed during Create Week.
📎 Detailed Syllabus
These next two weeks will move quickly, so remember, you’ll only get what you put into it. The students who get the most from the Program are leaders and givers. These are students who share their learning and invite peers to do the same – we’re so glad to have you in the Program and look forward to getting started.
🙋 FAQs
What should I do with my Workbook answers?
Your Workbook is for you to apply the concepts/lessons to your life and will serve as a great roadmap for leading change going forward. However, this is personal workspace to reflect, respond, and react rather than to submit for a grade.
Where do I watch the videos?
You can access the blocks and links in Leadership Lab Center. They will be released as the program progresses.
Do I receive a certificate of completion for the course?
Yes! We provide certificates of completion to students who watch all program videos and turn in a final design sprint. You’ll receive your credentials the week after the program ends via email.
How do I participate if I can’t attend at the live time?
This program mixes live sessions and pre-recorded or written content you can do on your schedule. Links will be found in the program center along with the other pre-recorded blocks, links, etc.
We strongly encourage you to attend live sessions, if possible. But all live sessions are recorded and available immediately afterward to allow students to keep up, even if they are not able to attend the live session.
Create Week also consists of work as small pods and allows flexibility in scheduling, meeting, and working for each pod to plan for themselves.