The origin of the Climate Innovation Fellowship starts with Civics Unplugged, a 501(c)(3) social enterprise founded in 2019 that empowers the leaders of Gen Z with the training, funding, and network they need to build a brighter future for humanity.

Over the past three years, 3,648 fellows have successfully completed the Civics Unplugged Fellowship program. Civics Unplugged has always recognized the importance of representation within their cohorts with nearly 75% of our fellows identifying as young women and 70% of our graduates identifying as people of color. Additionally, CU has continued to serve as a pipeline for college and career readiness, especially for first-generation college students which make up 40% of each Fellowship class. To date, Civics Unplugged has deployed over $553,219 to support its graduates, leading to alumni being appointed to state-wide offices, launching weekly columns in the Washington Post, being accepted into top universities across the globe, and so much more.

While we have had success supporting young people who are working to better their communities and the world in valuable ways, we recognize that young people won't be able to build paradigm-shifting projects necessary to effectively address today's global crises without proper training to innovate.

We also recognized that CU could -and must- be doing more into facilitating the future of humanity’s flourishing by tackling, head-on, one of the most pressing crises challenging the longevity and prosperity of future generations: climate change.

This is where our Climate Innovators Fellowship comes in.

There is not sufficient innovation training for young people wanting to build in the climate space, and we realized we could use our unique approach to fill that gap. What do we mean by this?

1. Many fellowships for climate change and energy experts are tailored for graduate or post-graduate students and researchers. But like any challenge....those opportunities may be too late and right now, time is of the essence. We cannot wait ten years for young and emerging Climate Fellows to have the opportunities to participate in transformative fellowships when these students are ready for training now.
2. Many students get caught in the advocacy stage- they think they know the solutions, they advocate for them, and yet, it becomes increasingly more difficult to legislate the change that is being demanded. We value advocacy work but we also want to use the passion as momentum by equipping and training our young innovators with the technical, quantitative, and analytical skillset to identify multiple possible solutions, the cost-benefit of implementing the solutions, and addressing the potential challenges to their ideas.
3. Many Fellowships are geared for just physical scientists, just policymakers and legal experts, or just business-oriented individuals interested in climate change...what happens if we launch fellowship where we bring these three communities together and provide intensive lessons to build a common foundation? Climate change and the energy transition is inherently multidisciplinary and exposure an appreciation for the utility each subfield and expertise contributes to addressing the climate crises will inspire sustainable solutions.
4. We know we have a special formula embedded deeply throughout the CU community. If we have been able to impact our future from our Civic Innovators Fellowship that covers a broad-range of issues, imagine what we can do when we focus intentionally and intensely on climate change?

Our job throughout this Fellowship journey is not to tell students what to think or how to act post-Fellowship, but rather expose young innovators to these various opinions, introduce important concepts and terminology, and most importantly, explain credible and factual data so they can make their own evidence-driven opinions and assessments.

Our vision is for CU alumni to play a key role in seeding the future of our society’s systems. CU aims to do this by investing in the development of leaders who are committed to their growth, and the sustainability of their communities. These change-makers must have the foundation to not only collaborate and learn alongside each other to contribute to the evolution of our communities and world system.

With the technical training and nurtured passion for climate and energy, we cannot wait to see the roles, projects, and ideas CU Climate alumni will lead.

As our Climate Innovators Fellowship launches, we hope you join us to save our planet, better prepare communities for the irreversible impacts of climate change, and our collective pathway to human flourishing.

Next page ⇒ Climate Innovators Fellowship Overview