2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Bridging the Green Skills Gap: Engaging Undergraduate Students as Changemakers in Engineering Education

Presented at Tech Session 2: Course-Level Innovations in Environmental Engineering: Projects, Case Studies, and Social Impact

Universities and colleges nationwide increasingly recognize the importance of integrating sustainability into engineering education to address pressing national and global sustainability challenges and the associated green skills gap. As a result, we are seeing a growing number of sustainability-focused offerings on campuses. Unfortunately, most of these offerings are extracurricular or are solely found within the civil and environmental engineering curriculum and thus are unavailable to students from other majors. To address the green skills gap, engineering education must undergo a significant transformation in order to equip all engineers, no matter their discipline, with the knowledge and skills needed to design and implement sustainability-focused solutions. Engineering for One Planet (EOP) is an initiative to address the green skills gap by providing tools, resources, and funding to support the integration of social and environmental sustainability into engineering education. From the outset, EOP recognized the importance of student voices and thus welcomed students to the EOP Advisory Board and the EOP Network. However, faculty have been the chief actors in EOP curricular change efforts, with students tending to only serve as beneficiaries and learners.

This paper proposes a deeper involvement of students in the curricular change-making process and an emphasis on ensuring that student voices are heard. Referencing insights from primary and secondary research into effective changemaker programs, this paper emphasizes the importance of viewing students as customers and co-creators in engineering education's transformation. A bottom-up, student-led approach to curricular change will bring additional capacity to new and existing change efforts. It will complement faculty change initiatives by incorporating fresh and innovative perspectives, providing faculty with a first-person understanding of what engages students and which skills students need and want for their future careers. This paper presents the EOP Student Ambassador Program design and details the training process and support mechanisms to prepare students to drive curricular change. Also discussed are the timeline and selection criteria for ambassadors, as well as the emphasis on collaboration among students, faculty, and other stakeholders to promote the alignment of curricular change with real-world sustainability demands. The program is scheduled to launch in September 2025.

Authors

Hadley Willman Engineering for One Planet [biography]

Hadley Willman is the Network Engagement Coordinator at Engineering for One Planet and Assistant Director at the Initiative for Climate Leadership and Resilience at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is the Creator and former Director of the University Climate Ambassador program at the U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce, and former Conference Manager at Engineers for a Sustainable World. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Management and Protection from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Her professional background is based in sustainability literacy and engagement via sustainability research, curriculum development, and collective impact efforts.
Ms. Victoria Matthew Engineering for One Planet [biography]

Victoria is the Network Manager for the Engineering for One Planet Network, an action network committed to ensuring all future engineers across all disciplines learn the fundamental skills and principles of social and environmental sustainability. Victoria is also a partner at Broadening Impacts, an organization that partners with researchers to get their knowledge out into the world. Prior to that Victoria led VentureWell’s Community of Practice and social learning initiatives, their collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Frontier Set, a network of 31 post-secondary institutions working to close the student opportunity gap, and the NSF funded Pathways to Innovation program, a network of 50 post-secondary institutions working to embed innovation and entrepreneurship into undergraduate engineering.
Dr. Andrew K. Schulz http://orcid.org/https:// 0000-0001-8007-5157 Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

Andrew Schulz is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute working in the field of conservation technology and sustainability education of engineers. Andrew completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech while working on engineering education that incorporates sustainability through wildlife conservation and human-centered design.
Emma Telepo Michigan State University [biography]

Emma Telepo is a junior at Michigan State University studying mechanical engineering, with minors in business and environmental & sustainability studies. Emma is committed to advancing modern technology and innovation, and aims to integrate the principles of sustainability into her work.
Reese Emily Simancek [biography]

Reese Simancek is a Mechanical Engineering major at the University of Miami who is looking to help the world through more sustainable technology.

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