You are here: 17吃瓜在线 School of International Service Undergraduate Earth Scholars

Back to top

Earth Scholars Local Roots, Global Reach

The Earth Scholars program is an innovative, community-driven cohort of changemakers. Earth Scholars are students at the beginning of their academic journey with a desire to think globally and act locally. 聽The program prioritizes the application of big ideas around environment, development, and health at a local level through community-based research and service-learning through partnerships with local nonprofits.

Earth Scholars are encouraged to take what they learn in the classroom into the community while gaining meaningful personal and professional experiences. The program provides additional support for this type of work in the community through peers in the cohort and mentorship from faculty. The Earth Scholars program aims to foster a strong community of practice and a sense of belonging among students passionate about environmental sustainability, social equity, and community-based research and action.

The AY25-26 cohort will begin their coursework together in Fall 2025, with admissions in December 2024 - January 2025. The cohort will participate in a one-of-a-kind retreat at the beginning of the academic year then take the special gateway course SISU-296 that counts as either a SISU-240 Global Inequalities and Development聽or a SISU-250 Environmental Sustainability and Global Health gateway course. Following that, students will engage in the specially designed SISU-306 course, which focuses on methods for community-based environmental research and advocacy. Throughout their sophomore to senior years, students will also have opportunities to participate in community-based environmental justice, activism, and advocacy work, gaining hands-on experience in their field of study.

Criteria

Students apply for the program after the fall semester of their first year.

Have Questions?

If you have any questions about the Earth Scholars Program, please contact us for more information.

Contact Us

Curriculum

The Earth Scholars cohort will take a series of courses together. The special sections of these courses have been designed to connect Earth Scholars with community-based research and service-learning and will engage with nonprofit organizations on community-based projects.

Earth Scholars will be given priority registration for their special cohort courses SISU-296 and SISU-306.

This curriculum is designed to complement and fulfill requirements for SIS majors (though non-SIS majors can be Earth Scholars)

This specially-designed gateway course introduces Scholars to community partners in the DC area with whom they would work during this gateway course and in their subsequent courses and semesters, hopefully all the way until their graduation. This gateway course can replace either SISU-240 or SISU-250 gateways for the Environment, Sustainability, Global Health or Global Inequality & Development thematic areas.

This course introduces students to social, political economic, (agri)cultural, and epistemic contexts and consequences of what are framed as environmental problems. This entails contextualizing ecological crises within histories of colonialism and anticolonialism and geographies of coloniality and decoloniality, from land defenders to water protectors. Drawing on geopolitical ecology, bioethics, and environmental justice, the class focuses on food and agricultural systems, policies, and equity movements. Specific topics include agrobiodiversity, Indigenous and African Diaspora traditional (agro)ecological knowledge, labor, land use, forests, the U.S. Farm Bill, land-based livelihoods, agrarian climate justice, and struggles for food, water, seed, data, and land sovereignty. Finally, the class weaves in community-based learning opportunities with frontline agrarian movements, field trips, and an introduction to community based research methodology.

Earth Scholars will take a capstone during their fourth year that allows them to work with a nonprofit community-partner on a topic they are interested and passionate about. Through shared vision and collaboration, students get the experience of building a meaningful partnership and relationship with a local organization, gain professional experience, and apply their learning with the support of faculty mentorship and peer support.

This dedicated section of the required research methods course focuses on methods for community-based environmental sustainability and social equity research and action. Scholars will work with a nonprofit community partner on a project as guided by the faculty instructor, diving into the application of research in community settings.

Application Process

Students must submit applications through an online portal. The application consists of the application through an online form and a 15 minute interview with Earth Scholars Faculty leadership, following the close of the application cycle.

The application deadline is Friday, January 31st, at 5:00 p.m. EST. All application materials must be submitted by the deadline to be considered for admission to the program for academic year 2025-26.

Join us for an Info Session!

  • Friday, December 6th, 2024 at 5pm (SIS 228)

  • Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025聽at 5:30pm

  • Monday, January 27th, 2025聽at 2:30pm