A case study on the effectiveness of cocurricular interdisciplinary sustainability programming for graduate students to create sustainability leaders

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability-focused, cocurricular, interdisciplinary programming for graduate students at creating future leaders in sustainability, i.e. did interdisciplinary sustainability programming further prepared graduate students in sustainability leadership beyond the scope of the individual student academic programs from the perspective of the student participants. Design/methodology/approach The objective of the study was met by evaluating the University of Michigan Dow Sustainability Fellows Program. With a decade of graduate-student participation, surveys and interviews of Fellows alumni from 2013 to 2020 were used to assess the program impact on creating sustainability leaders. Opportunities for program reflections were included through prompted open-ended questions. Findings A majority (88%) of the Fellows who responded to the survey agreed with the statement that their career path was positively affected by their participation in the program and that the cocurricular program provided opportunities to explore sustainability-related topics from perspectives they would not have experienced otherwise. The interdisciplinary aspect of the program and the focus on practical community sustainability projects were the most valued attributes of the cocurricular programming. Research limitations/implications Supporting cocurricular interdisciplinary programs requires significant resources and intentionality to engage diverse disciplines and diverse partner organizations. Practical implications Programs that provide experiential opportunities to build interdisciplinary team skills successfully enable graduate students to become leaders in sustainability fields in the workplace and in outreach and service. Social implications Cocurricular graduate student programming focused on community sustainability projects can successfully create valued learning experiences while simultaneously supporting communities with practical solutions to sustainability challenges. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first longitudinal assessment of the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary cocurricular programming on graduate student sustainability leadership outcomes. The results include feedback received from eight years of cocurricular programming.