students

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education SPIKE Student Scholars are co-creators and change agents in sustainability education

Talisa Lin — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:10:00 +0000

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education SPIKE Student Scholars are co-creators and change agents in sustainability education Talisa Lin Mon, 17 Aug 2026 - 09:10

After a successful launch in Spring 2026, the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education Student Scholars Inaugural Cohort, we welcome 12 students to form a new cohort this academic year. The SPIKE Student Scholars cohort engages in student centered learning experiences that support students as they co-imagining the world they want by drawing upon our diverse lived experiences and ways of knowing.

Student Scholars will listen to and gather perspectives from students across their respective schools and colleges and bring those perspectives to faculty, administrators, and other decision-makers to help shape how sustainability is integrated into curricula, programs, and educational experiences. The cohort will engage in creative, embodied practices to partner in the creation of sustainability education through curriculum. They form a community of co-teachers and co- learners exploring generative approaches that nurture this work. In doing so, they will continue to create a porous, welcoming, loving, radically accepting community for all students to be involved in the development of sustainability education.

The cohort is made up of interdisciplinary students. Each college or school at CU is represented by at least one SPIKE Student Scholar. By working within their respective schools and colleges, Scholars will help explore what sustainability means within different disciplines, from music and law to engineering, business, psychology, political science, and beyond and what students want sustainability education to look like within those fields. This provides students with opportunities to reach the broader student body within their respective colleges and work alongside a range of sustainability focused centers and offices.

Student Scholars serve as portals for student perspectives within their schools and colleges. They will create opportunities for students to share what they want faculty to understand about sustainability education, including how sustainability can be meaningfully integrated into disciplines and fields of study where it may not traditionally be centered. Beyond individual courses, Scholars will also explore the broader institutional culture and systems that shape what students learn about sustainability, both explicitly and implicitly. SPIKE Student scholars have a role in designing and imagining sustainability education beyond that of being a recipient of it.

"Having recently transitioned from serving as the faculty advisor for CU’s Center for Teaching and Learning, I am so excited to be applying all that I learned from that amazing team to student centered learning for sustainability education”, says SPIKE Center Student Engagement Associate Director Beth Osnes-Stoedefalke.

AY2627 SPIKE Student Scholars

The new cohort of student scholars includes:

Mariah Rosensweig: School of Education, double majoring in Leadership and Community Engagement and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Larissa Harrison: College of Music, majoring in Music

Carly Simmons: Leeds School of Business, majoring in management

Annaleise Kealiher: Engineering and Applied Sciences, ATLAS Creative Technology and Design, Social Impact Track

Kylie Clabaugh: College of Communication, Media, Design, and Information, majoring in Sustainability Planning and Urban Design

Rachel Summers: Colorado Law, Law

Naomi Jepkemei: College of Arts and Sciences, Masters of the Environment

Samuel Spotts: College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in chemistry

Juniper Davis: College of Arts and Sciences, major Political Science

Samantha Versie: College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Psychology

Paloma Lozano: College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Cinema Studies

Curtis Anderson: College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Together, these student leaders represent a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, underscoring the SPIKE Center’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and inclusive approaches to sustainability education at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

For more information on various ways students may play a role in the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education, please visit: /center/spike/students

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"Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home" author Dr. Katharine Wilkinson joined Dr. Max Boykoff in conversation

Talisa Lin — Tue, 26 May 2026 16:48:15 +0000

"Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home" author Dr. Katharine Wilkinson joined Dr. Max Boykoff in conversation Talisa Lin Tue, 26 May 2026 - 10:48

On May 14, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson joined CU professor Dr. Max Boykoff to talk about her recently published book Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home. This book includes personal essays, interwoven with the wisdom of other climate leaders and the beauty of poetry, art, and song. It is a book to sit with and savor, as it invites engagement with journaling prompts, practical exercises, and guides for conversation. In that spirit, CU �鶹ӰԺ students in attendence were provided a free copy for a planned summer book club led by the Environmental Center.

Dr. Wilkinson with Spike Buckley, CU alumnus and founder of the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education.

This event was co-sponsored by the CU �鶹ӰԺ Office of the Vice Chancellor for Sustainability, the CU �鶹ӰԺ Sustainability Research Initiative, the Spike Center for Sustainability Education, and the CU �鶹ӰԺ Environmental Center. The conversation took place in the British and Irish Studies room in Norlin Library with about 50 people in attendance.

Twenty years earlier, Max advised Katharine as she earned a DPhil in geography and environment from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Seven years ago, Time magazine named her one of fifteen “Women Who Will Save the World.” In addition to this new book, Katharine has co-authored the bestselling anthology All We Can Save, and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown. Dr. Wilkinson co-founded and leads The All We Can Save Project, where she shaped the much-beloved programs All We Can Save Circles and Climate Wayfinding. She also co-hosts the podcast A Matter of Degrees and writes the newsletter Human on Earth. Previously, Dr. Wilkinson was the principal writer and editor-in-chief at Project Drawdown. Before her work at the University of Oxford, Katharine earned a BA in religion from Sewanee: The University of the South.

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New sustainability award for Integrated Design Engineering Design Expo presented by SPIKE Student Scholar

Talisa Lin — Thu, 21 May 2026 15:20:52 +0000

New sustainability award for Integrated Design Engineering Design Expo presented by SPIKE Student Scholar Talisa Lin Thu, 21 May 2026 - 09:20

At this year’s CU's Integrated Design Engineering Design Expo on April 18th, SPIKE Student Scholar, Talin Shefman, introduced a new sustainability award recognizing the student project with the most sustainable design. The expo highlights innovative engineering projects developed by first, second, and third year students across disciplines, making it an ideal setting to elevate sustainability within engineering innovation.

As part of the SPIKE Student Scholars program, each scholar leads an initiative aligned with their passions and values, and Talin chose to highlight the importance of integrating sustainability into engineering innovation. The award was presented at the close of the expo, celebrating student teams that are thinking critically about the future impact of their designs.

The winning team, made up of four first-year engineering students, designed an automatic composting bin intended for placement in national parks to help reduce littering and improve waste management in outdoor recreation spaces. Their project demonstrates how thoughtful engineering solutions can support environmental stewardship.

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Register for global youth climate summit co-hosted by CU �鶹ӰԺ on June 5

Talisa Lin — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:34:00 +0000

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CU �鶹ӰԺ Student Comedians to Take Climate Humor from Local Earth Day Celebration to Hollywood Climate Summit

Toby Murdock — Thu, 14 May 2026 17:35:01 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ Student Comedians to Take Climate Humor from Local Earth Day Celebration to Hollywood Climate Summit Toby Murdock Thu, 14 May 2026 - 11:35

BOULDER, Colo. (May 14, 2026) — Sam Nelson, Liam Connelly, Chloe Hull, and Koyote Manske from the �鶹ӰԺ's Creative Climate Communication course are taking their unique brand of environmental humor to the national stage, representing the university at the upcoming ‘Scorched’ Climate Comedy show to close the events on June 4 at the Hollywood Climate Summit.

The student comedy group, recognized for their performances at the 11th annual "Earth Day Eve: Stand Up for Climate Comedy" event at the historic �鶹ӰԺ Theater, will bring their sharp wit and compelling storytelling to Los Angeles. Hosted in collaboration with the Hip Hop Caucus and Inside the Greenhouse, the Hollywood Climate Summit closing event will highlight rising voices alongside established professional comedians such as Reggie Watts and Esteban Gast, emphasizing the power of humor in addressing the climate crisis.

During the local Earth Day Eve celebration in �鶹ӰԺ, the students shared the stage with headlining professional comedians, delivering stand-up sets and sketches that tackled climate anxiety, sustainability, and environmental action. Their standout performances paved the way for their upcoming participation at the Los Angeles Hollywood Climate Summit, where they will perform original material for a diverse audience of climate justice advocates, industry professionals, and comedy fans. Want to check it out? Enjoy two days of hands-on programming, meaningful networking, and plant-based eats in Los Angeles (and free online via livestream) on June 3 and 4. Use our partner code HCSFAM 50% off your ticket! Grab yours at hollywoodclimatesummit.com/tickets

Max Boykoff, Faculty Executive Director of the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education at CU �鶹ӰԺ, praised the students for their innovative approach to environmental advocacy.

"Humor is an incredibly powerful tool for breaking down barriers and making the complex realities of climate change accessible to everyday people," said Boykoff. "Seeing our students take the material they developed for our Earth Day Eve event and perform it on a prominent stage at the Hollywood Climate Summit is a testament to the impact of creative climate communication. They aren't just making people laugh; they are sparking meaningful dialogue and inspiring real climate action."

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education, which hosted the CU �鶹ӰԺ event, continues to champion the integration of arts and sciences to mobilize communities. By utilizing humor as an engaging storytelling tool, these student performers are helping to break down complex ecological issues, proving that the fight for a sustainable future can be both impactful and entertaining.

Photo Credit: Ben Hale/PrettyGoodPics

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Max Boykoff talks SPIKE Center on eTown

Toby Murdock — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:54:36 +0000

Max Boykoff talks SPIKE Center on eTown Toby Murdock Wed, 6 May 2026 - 09:54

On May 6 eTown broadcast an episode that featured SPIKE Executive Director Max Boykoff talking about climate communication and the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education. Please click the link above to listen to Max's interview on YouTube.

"Young people nowadays aren't like my generation that had grown up in a world now thinking and talking about [climate change]," said Max. "Young people are ready to go."

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The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education, almost one year in

Toby Murdock — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:28:26 +0000

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education, almost one year in Toby Murdock Mon, 27 Apr 2026 - 13:28

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education was launched in fall 2025 after a $10 million gift from Buff alumnus Spike Buckley, which was given in response to Chancellor Justin Schwartz’s identification of sustainability as a campus priority. Since its inception, the center has grown into an accelerator for sustainability education and leadership on campus.

The Provost’s Post recently spoke with the Faculty Executive Director for the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education Max Boykoff, who is also a fellow with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and a professor in the Department of Environmental Studies, about what the SPIKE Center has been working on during its first academic year and what the next year will bring.

An academic year in, how has SPIKE Center developed and/or evolved compared to how it was first envisioned?

This transformative gift from Spike Buckley provides an opportunity for us at CU �鶹ӰԺ to come together as a globally recognized sustainability-related education destination for students preparing for careers that help to navigate their lives and livelihoods in the 21st century world. This is our moment to move forward as we build on many key initiatives developed over the past decades by CU �鶹ӰԺ faculty and administrative leadership. We have been evolving our plans as our outstanding and capable SPIKE Center team integrates lessons learned from these past efforts while we move forward.

We have benefited from many conversations with students, staff, faculty and administrative leaders this academic year to align SPIKE Center priorities with demands, needs and aspirations here on campus regarding sustainability pedagogy and education in the next few years. We have therefore developed concrete plans to support the faculty creation of a sustainability minor for students to begin enrolling in fall 2027. The details are yet to be developed—and will require ongoing engagement with connected divisions, schools, colleges, centers and everyone in them—yet the larger goal and timeline have come into focus through our iterative strategic planning process over the past six months.

Our ambitions have risen as we have worked to better understand our great capabilities and appetite for transformative sustainability education on this campus in these times. We recognize that this is uniquely possible here and that many members of our campus community are ready for us all to move forward with planning to reach every student at CU �鶹ӰԺ with meaningful sustainability-related educational opportunities by the year 2030.

How is this work supporting the campus’s broader sustainability work?

The work of the SPIKE Center takes place within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Sustainability, led by Vice Chancellor for Sustainability Andrew Mayock, where education is one of the four priorities for sustainability implementation on campus. By working to support and accelerate our training of students to become leaders who drive transformational environmental change, we are helping CU �鶹ӰԺ meet its goal of becoming a global leader in sustainability within public higher education.

Q: What can the CU �鶹ӰԺ community expect from SPIKE going forward into year two?

A: Our initial focus has been to engage with groups and already-existing initiatives across campus to support sustainability education endeavors, generate awareness and engage in dialogues to envision the future of sustainability education at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

In the coming years, we seek to engage and graduate the highest proportion of sustainability-focused students in global public higher education and achieve significant increases in graduation and post-graduation employment rates among sustainability-focused students. We will do this by providing opportunities for the entire campus to engage with sustainability education as we build and strengthen connections and receive and integrate feedback from our students, staff, faculty and leaders on campus as well as in the surrounding �鶹ӰԺ community.

We also will be imagining and energizing a common framework for sustainability education across CU �鶹ӰԺ as we support faculty development of a sustainability minor across all schools, colleges and divisions to achieve a unique breadth of sustainability education for students here. The CU �鶹ӰԺ community can also expect us to work to identify, uplift and encourage experiential learning across sustainability education, including robust employer relationships that will yield strong job and post-graduation outcomes as we collaborate on student recruitment efforts to attract students who want a world class sustainability education here at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

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SPIKE CENTER FOR SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION 2026 DESIGN CONTEST

Toby Murdock — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 19:09:23 +0000

SPIKE CENTER FOR SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION 2026 DESIGN CONTEST Toby Murdock Thu, 12 Mar 2026 - 13:09

WHEN: DEADLINE: APRIL 8, 2026 before 12pm MT

WINNER ANNOUNCED: 2026 Earth Day Eve APRIL 21^st

WHO: any currently enrolled student at the �鶹ӰԺ may participate

WHAT: Create a design that illustrates what “sustainability education” means to you—or at least one way you find it matters. We welcome designs that include the word “SPIKE” to spread the word on the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education. This design could be placed as stickers on a water bottle, laptop, or other surface, or as a t-shirt design!

Submission Guidelines:

Create a circle (3x3), rectangle (3x2), oval (3x2), or square (3x3) design
Must be an original design: no AI-generated designs, clipart requiring permission, copyrighted or trademarked material (including CU or logos)
Please upload as a vector file format. We suggest a transparent background if that is fitting for your design

HOW: Fill out this form linked here and upload your design there!

WHY: Use your ideas and creativity to help shape what sustainability education means on our campus! You can earn bragging rights for submitting, and the winner may receive a $50 gift card to the CU Book Store!*

*If the winner is a non-US person, $50 will be paid via another payment mechanism to ensure proper international tax review.

SPIKE-affiliated students, staff, and faculty will be invited to judge the designs!

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The SPIKE Center Launches Inaugural Cohort of SPIKE Student Scholars

Toby Murdock — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:12:59 +0000

The SPIKE Center Launches Inaugural Cohort of SPIKE Student Scholars Toby Murdock Thu, 12 Mar 2026 - 09:12

The first inaugural cohort of SPIKE Student Scholars is up and running. Eleven students chosen from nearly one hundred applicants represent every college across the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus. There is range from an undergraduate freshman in Education to a graduate PhD student in Chemistry working together to be change agents advancing sustainability education on the CU �鶹ӰԺ campus and beyond. This representative group of CU students form an innovative community of practice and engage in activities that co-create, promote, and advance sustainability education initiatives at CU through the SPIKE Center. In the spirit of “nothing about us without us,” these students participate in designing and defining the roles, responsibilities, duties, and opportunities of and for SPIKE student engagement. They also contribute to establishing criteria and protocols for support and funding by the SPIKE Center for proposed initiatives and projects. They plan events for a wide variety of students to co-imagine and contribute their ideas and priorities for student engagement within the SPIKE Center. In addition, SPIKE scholars participate in outreach to disseminate their own sustainability work and the work of the SPIKE Center within our community, throughout the state, nationally, and internationally. We are grateful for the good-natured enthusiasm of this first cohort as we build the bridge as we cross it together. Our first student-created event will be on April 6, 2026, 5-6PM at CASE E390 where we will craft pencil bags out of repurposed materials while discussing effective approaches and techniques for providing testimony for environmental policy deliberations, all with great snacks, of course! Please direct any interested students to check us out at the Expo Hall from 4-6PM April 15^th at the CU Sustainability Summit or to reach out directly to the Associate Faculty Director for Student Engagement, Beth Osnes-Stoedefalke at beth.osnes@colorado.edu.

More information about the Student Scholars program can be found on this page.

Here is a full roster of this cohort of scholars:

Aisha	O'Neil	Senior	History, Political Science (PSCI-BA)
Cindy	Wong	Doctorate	Chemical Engineering (CHEN-PHD)
Larissa	Harrison	Masters	Music (MUSM-MMUS)
Naomi	Jepkemei	Masters	Master of the Environment (ENVR-MENV)
Claire	Legg	Junior	Environmental Studies (ENVS-BA)
Jack	Ryan	Sophomore	Management (MGMT-BSBA)
Kit	Irizarry	Sophomore	Leadership/CommunityEngagement (LDCE-BA)
Kylie	Clabaugh	Sophomore	Sust Planning & Urban Design (PLAN-BEV)
Mariah	Rosensweig	Senior	Leadership/CommunityEngagement (LDCE-BA), Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EBIO-BA)
Mary	Fofana	Masters in Law	Natural Resources Energy and Environmental law
Talin	Shefman	Sophomore	Aerospace Engineering Sciences (ASEN-BSAE)

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The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education and the Nature, Environment, Science & Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts will offer SPIKE-NEST Graduate Fellowships in 2026

Toby Murdock — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 21:43:05 +0000

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education and the Nature, Environment, Science & Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts will offer SPIKE-NEST Graduate Fellowships in 2026 Toby Murdock Thu, 5 Mar 2026 - 14:43

The Nature, Environment, Science & Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts at the �鶹ӰԺ (CU �鶹ӰԺ) has partnered with the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education (SPIKE Center) to support both undergraduate and graduate students to work on collaborative, sustainability-focused projects bridging the arts and sciences.

This project seeks to develop collaborative and interdisciplinary explorations of sustainability. Each awarded group will consist of cross-disciplinary small teams of graduate student collaborators that welcome and mentor an undergraduate student who will work on a media project alongside the team, resulting in a broadly-defined media project for public exhibition on campus focusing on sustainability. Example projects may include: public installations, performances, time-based or moving-image based works, sonic or audio compositions, or any other arts forms that would be within practice-based research.

Since 2017, NEST has supported over 80 graduate students, facilitating art-science exhibitions across the state, featuring new research that has manifested in film, sculpture, music, painting, video, virtual reality, and all manner of live performance, including poetry, theater, and dance. Projects have been presented at scientific conferences, in science journals, and yielded quantitative data in multiple dissertations. In 2026, NEST joins forces with SPIKE to engage more students and to think creatively about sustainability in cross-disciplinary work at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

The SPIKE Center formed in Fall 2025 to assist in the implementation of Chancellor Schwartz’s vision for sustainability at CU �鶹ӰԺ in the sphere of education. The SPIKE Center works to facilitate a shared future of sustainability education at the campus and support its realization.

“Graduate students never fail to create imaginative new methods for approaching society’s biggest problems,” said Erin Espelie, co-Founder of the NEST Studio for the Arts. “This partnership with the SPIKE Center will empower more students to explore the intersection of the arts and sustainability sciences, creating new ways to work across disciplines.”

“At the SPIKE Center we seek to support sustainability education pursuits from all academic approaches,” said Max Boykoff, Faculty Executive Director of the SPIKE Center. “Artistic performance and exhibitions play a crucial role in shaping the popular consciousness around sustainability, and we are delighted to partner with the NEST Studio on this project.”

“The SPIKE-NEST partnership reflects CU �鶹ӰԺ’s belief that powerful sustainability solutions emerge when artists and scientists create together,” noted CU �鶹ӰԺ Vice Chancellor for Sustainability Andrew Mayock. “By supporting these summer fellows, we are investing in bold, cross-disciplinary thinking that will help shape a more resilient and imaginative future”.

The deadline for NEST-SPIKE summer 2026 proposals is March 23rd, 2026. Send proposals to nest@colorado.edu with the subject line: Summer Fellowship Application.

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