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Climate Essentials was a workshop series run by the Office of Sustianablity at Swarthmore College. Piloted in 2019 as part of the President's Sustainablity Research Fellowship. It became a flagship program for the office from 2020-2022. The goal of the program was to "critically engage with the climate crisis in its many dimensions” on both the community and individual levels. Over, it's lifetime was attended by staff, students, faculty, and members of the greater Swarthmore Community and featured internationally recognized speakers on the climate crisis.

Introduction

This page highlights my work on Climate Essentials Workshop during my time as President’s Sustainability Research Fellow (PSRF) from 2020-2022. I was selected for the competitive work/study PSRF fellowship in the Spring of 2020 and assigned the role of Climate Community Fellow.

During the summer of 2020, I was awarded a Lang Center Social Impact Summer Scholarship and worked to continue the development of the Climate Essentials Workshop and research climate communication strategies. Throughout the Fall of 2020 until the Spring of 2022, I worked on developing and implementing the Climate Essentials Workshop series.

The Problem

Higher education institutions are uniquely positioned with the tools to understand and equip their community with tools to address the climate crisis. However, while most students believe that the climate crisis is real, they often lack an understanding of basic climate science and concepts (Artz et al). They also often lack an understanding of the social change, economic, and political dimensions of the climate crisis (Tójar-Hurtado 391).

– Root Causes

Concern about climate change is a major factor in students’ and society’s thoughts about and planning for the future. Public action on and understanding of the climate crisis is out of touch with the current realities of the world.

– The Need

The Swarthmore College community currently has a need for programming, engaged scholarship, and coursework that engages directly with the problems presented by the climate crisis.

Additionally, this programming should engage directly with systemic, institutional, and environmental justice issues. This project should also work to develop techniques to support the Swarthmore campus community to reconcile this disjuncture with the realities and perceptions of the climate crisis, to allow information flows about climate change, and to support people to be a part of pathways to solutions.

The Solution

Growing up in rural Kansas, [John] Martin Tomlinson ’23 experienced the effects of the climate crisis firsthand. ‘I saw my neighbors’ crops failing and the water in the creek behind my house beginning to dry out… As my town became more and more abandoned, I began to realize that this was the death of a way of life and of a community.’
Creating a New Climate: Moving past pessimism and paralysis, a student-led workshop series encourages participants to ‘critically engage with the climate crisis in its many dimensions’ by Roy Griem featured in The Bulletin, The Alumni Magazine of Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College wanted to develop a program that would allow all students, staff, faculty, and community members to develop a toolkit to address the climate crisis in a personal, interpersonal, and global manner. My work on the Climate Essentials Workshop Series focused rethinking the program to address this gap based on a combination of participant feedback and community-focused reimagining. During its lifespan, the Climate Essentials workshop series helped create conversations, engage the community, and serve to increase awareness of climate crisis-related policy, social change, psychology, and science.

The Output

“I was very impressed with how ambitious this program was. We heard from experts in many different areas. I was especially appreciative of the coverage of indigenous people in the course. I also liked hearing from and talking with staff, students, alumni, and other interested individuals all connected to the College in some way. This was a well done series.”
Franz Putnam, Swarthmore Class of ’69, speaking on her experiance in the Climate Essentials Workshop Seires.

A short workshop series on the climate crisis consisting of five or six sessions and featuring renowned speakers, small group discussion, and space for meaningful engagement with the climate crisis.

Basic Outline of a Climate Essentials Workshop Session

1) 5-10 minutes: Introduction of Guest Speaker
2) 45 minutes: Talk by featured guest speaker
3) 30 minute: Small group discussion run by facilitors dicussing the themes presented by the guest speaker. Usually, with a focus on how participant experiance the aspects of the climate crisis discusssed by the speaker in their lives and communities.

Envisioning: Phase 1

An Illustration depicting Swarthmore College as a green utopia. Source: Beth Walrond for the Swarthmore Bulletin

Summer 2020 – Winter 2021

Summer 2020

Note: Work done alongside Declan Murphy ’21 and supervised by Melissa Tier ’19, Kyle Richmond-Crosset ’19

Alongside Declan Murphy ’20, co-leader of the Climate Essentials Pilot Workshop conducted 10+ interviews with pilot workshop series participants.
Developed a list of key takeaways and improvement areas based on interview feedback

Fall 2020

Note: Fall 2020- Spring 2021 work done in collaboration with Maya Tipton ’24 and Declan Murphy ’21 under the supervision of Aurora Winslade (then director of Swarthmore Office of Sustainability), and Terrence Xiao ’20 (then Sustainability and Engaged Scholarship Fellow

Climate Essentials is a student-led workshop series designed for the Swarthmore community to engage with the climate crisis in its many dimensions critically. We emphasized a holistic approach to understanding the climate crisis, highlighting environmental justice, systemic causes, and equitable paths forward.
Climate Essentials Workshop Series Mission Statement written in Fall 2020

Developed a virtual model for conducting the workshop series and refined workshop pedagogy based on student, staff, and faculty input due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Addressed feedback from pilot project interviews
Assembled and met with a project board consisting of college staff and faculty
Developed goals for the Climate Essentials workshop series.

Goals for Climate Essentials 2022:
1) To build a community of students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members engaged in the climate crisis.
2) Create space for the community to engage with critical topics in sustainability through intersectional programming.

Implementing: Phase II

Spring 2021 – Spring 2022

A photo of Mustafa Santiago Ali presenting virtually at Climate Essentials.

Climate Essentials Handbook Download

Building Climate Community in Liberal Arts Education Spaces (John Martin Tomlinson)Download

Spring 2021

Recruited renowned speakers for the workshop series, including Mustafa Santiago Ali and Frances Moore Lappé, author of the bestselling Diet for a Small Planet.
Launched marketing campaign and registered over 150+ students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members (equivalent to ~10% of Swarthmore College student body)
Hired and co-led a group of 10 student facilitators to help lead small group discussions during the workshop.
Co-facilitated, co-planned, and co-led all five main sessions of the Climate Essentials Workshop Series
Co-developed “The Ultimate Guide to Climate Essentials” to foster institutional memory and provide an outline for developing similar programs.
Publicly presented program outputs to an audience including Dr. Valerie Smith (president of Swarthmore College), Gregory Brown, vice president for finance and administration, and department heads, high-ranking staff, students, and faculty members.
Wrote a white paper on “Building Climate Community in Liberal Arts Education Spaces.” This text outlines how the theoretical backing of the Climate Essentials Workshop series.

Fall 2021

Note: Fall 2021- Spring 2022 work done alongside Alex Flowers ’21 (Sustainability and Engaged Scholarship fellow) and supervised by Elizabeth Drake, (director of Swarthmore Office of Sustainability)

Refined format and structure of Climate Essentials Workshop Series based on Spring 2021 participant feedback.
Began recruiting speakers and developing marketing materials for the 2022 workshop session.
Redeveloped workshop webpage

Spring 2022

Recruited renowned speakers for the workshop series, including Sarah Jaquette Ray, author of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Plane, and Sen. Chloe Maxmin, Author of Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why Our Future Depends On It and Maine State Senator.
Co-facilitated, co-planned, and co-led all five main sessions of the Climate Essentials Workshop Series
Hired and managed a group of ~10 facilitators.