Deshpande Foundation: 9th Annual Deshpande Symposium for Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Higher Education
Institute director, Dr. Amy Tuininga participated in the Transforming Campuses to Foster Sustainability-focused Learning and Institutional Change panel
Posted in: In the Community
Speakers
- Phil Weilerstein (Speaker) President and CEO, VentureWell (formerly NCIIA – Nat’l Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance)
- Cindy Gilbert (Speaker) Senior Program Officer, VentureWell
- Amy Tuininga (Speaker) Director, PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies, Montclair State University
- Volker Sick (Speaker) Instructor at Techlab Climate Change, University of Michigan
- Scott Shrake (Speaker) Director – Institute for Entrepreneurship, Colorado State University College of Business
Description
Today, we face a planetary-scale environmental and oncoming social crisis unprecedented in our history. It is clear, the time to act is long overdue and, as educators, we recognize the importance of teaching sustainability-focused concepts, tools, and frameworks that may lead to critical innovative solutions.
Our institutional communities (our students, faculty, and staff) want to do more, take action, and make positive and long-lasting impacts on our campuses and in our communities. But how do we get started? How can universities drive a sustainability agenda by leveraging their communities of researchers, educators, and student innovators? How can educators create a experiential learning opportunities where students gain hands-on and real-world experiences that will shape their potential to become sustainable innovators and entrepreneurs, and garner green jobs in the future? Together, we will explore these questions and offer approaches that attendees can turn into actionable next steps on their campuses.
In this session, panelists will share strategies, effective practices and recommendations that can be utilized by attendees to integrate sustainability and grow a comprehensive sustainability-focused initiative in order to drive change at their institutions.
Potential key takeaways from this session:
- Examples of frameworks and tools that are freely available to you to integrate key sustainability concepts into course curricula
- Best practices to develop a comprehensive sustainability-focused initiative on campus to cultivate a thriving sustainable ecosystem
- Recognition of the roles universities play in making sustainability more accessible to the broader public