Baird Sustainability Fellows

Open to Rising Juniors and Seniors of All Majors

Apply for your place to work with and learn from highly motivated and capable peers who are passionate about creating change for sustainability. This opportunity is open to poets and physicists, artists and anthropologists, philosophers and psychologists, historians and humanists, economists and environmental scientists - anyone who has engaged in scholarship, service and action aimed at advancing social, economic or environmental sustainability goals and wants to build skills for social change. Selection criteria is based on the following:

• Significant engagement in academic work and research that focus on or intersect with sustainability, broadly considered.
• Demonstrated interests, engagement and accomplishments in action and service for advancing social, economic and/or environmental sustainability goals.
• Demonstrated abilities to think critically about sustainability questions, problems and potential solutions; articulate connections between one’s field of study and sustainability; and apply disciplinary or interdisciplinary knowledge and methods to analyze sustainability problems and solutions.
• High scholastic achievement, normally evidenced by a 3.4 or higher GPA.
• Character and behavior that exemplify the values of civic responsibility, environmental stewardship, social justice and global perspective.

Applications for 2024: Now Open

The following materials are to be submitted by e-mail to sustainability@dickinson.edu by MARCH 8, 2024.

Application Materials:

1. Online Application Form:
Complete the online Baird Sustainability Fellows Application form using the online link. We recommend preparing essays in MS Word and then copy into the form when complete. You can preview the form online without submitting. Essay questions are provided here to ease preparation:

• How has your academic work, including academic courses and research, shaped your understanding of and engagement with sustainability challenges and solutions? In your response, focus on a small number of examples that have been particularly influential for you. (300 word limit).
• How have your activities beyond the classroom shaped your understanding of and engagement with sustainability challenges and solutions? In your response, focus on a small number of activities that have been particularly influential for you. Examples of activities that you might write about include, but are not limited to, work with clubs and organizations, special projects, community service, internships, and paid work. (300 word limit).
• List courses that you have taken that have contributed to your understanding of sustainability principles, challenges, and/or solutions. These can include Sustainability Investigations (SINV), Sustainability Connections (SCON), and other courses that you consider to have added to your understanding of sustainability. For each course, please provide the academic department, course number, and course title.
• Describe a time when you aspired to advance sustainability goals by designing, proposing, implementing, or participating in a solution or response to a problem or opportunity. Your response should communicate your interpretation of sustainability, make evident the knowledge and skills you applied and/or developed in addressing the problem, describe the role you played, and identify any lessons learned that would inform how you might approach similar challenges in the future. (750 word limit).

2. Resume:
Submit a 1 to 2 page resume. Your resume is an important part of your application and will be reviewed carefully by the selection committee. You should update your resume, tailoring it to make evident the relevance of your education, experiences, service, work and accomplishments to the Baird Sustainability Fellows selection criteria.

3. Unoffical Transcript:
Ask the Registrar to send an unofficial transcript (.pdf) by email to sustainability@dickinson.edu. 

4. Letter of Recommendation:
Ask one faculty member to write a letter of recommendation for you, following the Instructions for Letters of Recommendation for Baird Sustainability Fellows. Your reference should e-mail their letter directly to sustainability@dickinson.edu.

5. Supprting Material (Optional)
You may, if you wish, submit in support of your application one example of your work that gives evidence of your qualifications as a Baird Sustainability Fellow candidate. Your example could be a paper, presentation, poster, video, blog, artistic creation, performance recording or other output of your work. Send your supporting material by email to sustainability@dickinson.edu as an electronic document or hyperlink to online material.

For questions about the program or application process contact:

The Center for Sustainability Education (CSE), Kaufman 190

Neil Leary, Director, learyn@dickinson.edu, 717.245.1954 or
Lindsey Lyons, Director of Sustainability Learning, lyonsli@dickinson.edu, 717.245.1117