Unleashing Youth Leadership at Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium Conference, McGill (Montreal, QC)

The 7th Annual Northeast Campus Sustainability Consortium (NECSC) Conference:  Sustainability and Global Citizenship Education will be held at McGill University.  This year, as we reach the midpoint of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, we reflect and share our experiences, successes, and lessons learned on the theme of Sustainability and Global Citizenship Education.

The conference will take place during the scheduled October 25th/26th over the four conference tracks. The four tracks will address the following topics:

• Systems thinking for cultural change
• Community based social marketing
• Globalization, culture and sustainability
• Developing students as environmental leaders

The Natural Step Canada will be participating in the 'Developing students as environmental leaders' track with our session “Unleashing Youth Leadership” : Youth are leaders.  They care passionately about natural systems around them and issues of domestic and international justice.  Youth care.  Current systems are not built take their passion or input constructively as businesses, communities and political systems do not regularly engage them in meaningful ways.  Because of this, youth are turning towards alternate systems, which include youth activism, social enterprise and the NGO world.  How can higher education prepare students to engage in a system in which they already feel disconnected and disenfranchised from?

The Natural Step Canada launched the Emerging Leaders program in order to do just this.  We work with undergraduate and graduate students to provide them with experiences, connections and tools to become change agents in their communities, businesses, campuses and personal lives.  In our workshop, we will present The Natural Step Canada, our Emerging Leaders program, will highlight our coop partnerships with schools across Canada and then lead an interactive dialogue around the question: “How do we build applied experiences into theoretical education systems?” in which we will ask audience members to share stories, brainstorm ideas and provide feedback on The Natural Step approach.

Presentation and Facilitation Team will include Anouk Bertner, Emerging Leaders Manager, and Esther Dormagen, Sustainability Associate.

For more information, or to register, click here.