The DoRight Leadership Corps: Empowering Youth as Sustainability Leaders
Appropriate for grades 6-10
This course is a condensed version of a full course in sustainability and climate with a highly unique action component that places students in the role of “consultants” to local businesses to advise on raising profits and lower ecological footprints. Political action and public relations are also tracks for students to choose.
The course begins with inquiry into self–values, personal interests, etc.–and extends to taking measure of the current state of the planet and society. On a “need to know basis” through a wide assortment of activities students pursue the study of sustainability and climate, current state of the planet, ecological science, supply chains, systems thinking, and economics, all while utilizing the knowledge and skills from academic subject areas—math, science, social studies and English, as key tools. The culminating project places students in the role of “consultants” of the DoRight Leadership Corps “consulting firm” where they choose to work in one or more of the three DoRight action departments: 1) “DoRight Consulting”, conducting sustainability assessments and analysis of chosen “clients” in the community providing advice on how to increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and lower environmental impact. 2) Legislative Action, conducting advocacy campaigns for legislation at the local, state and federal levels, and 3) Public Relations, developing creative communication projects—documentary films, teach-ins, art projects, letters to newspapers, etc. Students’ focus in any project context is based on a chosen issue area (sustainability, climate, social justice, and more). Students learn essential skills of entrepreneurship and professionalism for all business applications as well as core competencies and knowledge base for jobs in the emerging “green” economy.
The DoRight program was designed by Scott Beall and has been taught in public and private schools as well as homeschool settings since 2005. For more information, testimonials, examples of student work and full curricular map with lesson plan examples visit www.noboundary.org. The website is filled with press, student work, photo galleries and more on this program.
