High performing U-M sophomores with a passion for the environment and sustainability are being invited to apply for the Graham Sustainability Institute’s Undergraduate Sustainability Scholars Program until Jan. 17, 2012.
In collaboration with seven U-M schools and colleges, the Sustainability Scholars Program accepts up to 30 sophomores each year to pursue an 11-credit course sequence and related co-curricular activities during their junior and senior years.
The Sustainability Scholars Program offers a variety of advantages to students who are accepted, including the 
following:
- FUNDING: up to $3,000 toward a field-based sustainability course or experience in a variety of locations, including Detroit, Wyoming, Costa Rica, Kenya, and China
- ACCESS: Priority admittance into Graham-supported, field-based sustainability courses
- TRAINING: Hands-on skill development and leadership training
- COMMUNITY: Unique and ongoing opportunities to interact and engage with other sustainability-minded U-M students
- CREDENTIALS: Official acknowledgement of academic accomplishment on their U-M transcript (in participating schools and colleges) and a certificate from the Graham Institute.
“The underlying premise of the Sustainability Scholars Program is that solutions to global unsustainability require a new generation of critical thinkers who embrace complexity, interconnectedness, uncertainty, and change,” says Graham Institute Education Director Mike Shriberg, Ph.D., who teaches the popular Sustainability and the Campus class, which is required for the program. “Through a series of leadership and skill building exercises, interdisciplinary coursework, and field-based studies, this program prepares students to become the kind of sustainability leaders the world needs in this pivotal time in human history.”
Poonam Dagli, a senior in the Ross School of Business who is finishing her final year as a “Sustainability Scholar,” says the Sustainability Scholars Program has helped her to thrive at the university.
“The Scholars Program has been incredibly important to me because it enabled me to do something I am really passionate about,” she says, “It’s about being part of a community built around sustainability where everyone is super friendly and smart at the same time. It really has been an incredible environment in which to thrive.”
Physics Senior, Program in the Environment Minor, and Sustainability Scholar Samantha Schiebold shares similar sentiments.
“The Graham Sustainability Scholars Program has had a profound influence on my thinking and actions regarding sustainability,” she says. “The course offerings are tremendous, but perhaps more important are the relationships that develop between peers who come from a variety of intellectual and social backgrounds, yet who are all motivated to actualize sustainability.
Details about the program, eligibility requirements, and an online application (due January 17, 2012) are available in the Student Programs section of the Graham Institute website at www.graham.umich.edu. Students are required to submit references as part of their application.