Featured Program Profile

Sustainability Leadership Fellow program
School of Global Environmental Sustainability
Colorado State University

The SoGES Sustainability Leadership Fellows program provides innovative training to effectively communicate science to the media and public, professional development skills and techniques, and strategies to build meaningful careers that incorporate engagement and interdisciplinarity. The program is run by the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University and recruits advanced PhD students and postdoctoral scholars from all eight colleges at Colorado State. In each training year, a cohort of 20 Fellows is selected from a competitive pool of applicants; 120 Fellows have participated to date, with a 7th cohort starting Fall 2017.

Each cohort of Fellows begins the year with in an intensive two-day science communication training workshop run by COMPASS, science communication specialists. During the academic year Fellows participate in six formal training sessions led by local and University experts on a range of topics including conflict management, interacting with policy-makers, data visualization, and time and workload optimization. Fellows also take part in additional skill building and networking opportunities throughout the year, including an evening with the University Provost. At the end of the program, Fellows are able to elegantly deconstruct, define, and communicate their research within the framework of broader global environmental sustainability challenges using cross-disciplinary and integrative thinking.

"Tackling tomorrow’s environmental challenges will require leaders and institutions who are trained in innovative and collaborative approaches. ANGLES brings together colleges and universities who are dissolving institutional and disciplinary boundaries by training the next generation of sustainability leaders."
Diana Wall
Founding Director of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, a Distinguished Biology Professor, and Senior Research Scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University

Featured Program Profile

Training Our Future Ocean Leaders
University of British Columbia

Training Our Future Ocean Leaders (Ocean Leaders) is an innovative new UBC program that aims to prepare the next generation of interdisciplinary marine researchers with the ability to translate technical knowledge into policy and management innovations for the oceans. Thanks to funding from the National Science and Engineering Research Council’s CREATE program, Ocean Leaders provides value-added professional training and opportunities not available in existing disciplinary graduate programs.

With the leadership of an interdisciplinary team of UBC faculty and off-campus collaborators, the program provides graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with the opportunity to reach beyond their fields of technical expertise and develop professional experience in areas including marine law and governance, community engagement, science communication, entrepreneurship, and environmental impact assessment. Fellows in the program complete their degrees in their home departments and institutes and engage in additional Ocean Leaders activities including a Grand Challenges in Ocean Leadership course, professional development workshops and internships with off-campus collaborators from industry, government, non-governmental organizations, and boundary organizations.

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Featured Program Profile

The Leadership Training Program
McGill University

The Leadership Training Program builds graduate student leadership skills at McGill University by providing leadership and communication skills development opportunities. Student-led programming is offered across a range of topics such as leadership foundations, emotional intelligence, negotiation, motivation, and problem solving. Students who participate in the program are recognized with a co-curricular record of completion, alongside learning opportunities and materials that enable them to effectively translate knowledge into action, catalyze change, and address pressing challenges in their communities and chosen careers.

The Leadership Training Program’s ultimate goal is to cultivate a cohort of cross-disciplinary change agents who are able to engage communities, communicate effectively, and make sustainable impact in their chosen careers. Launched in September 2016 with the support of a grant from Entente Canada-Québec à l’enseignement dans la langue de la minorité et à l’enseignement des langues seconds, the program operates under the auspices of McGill’s SKILLSETS initiative, which offers a suite of skills and professional development offerings aimed at enhancing the graduate student and postdoctoral fellow experience.