Course Description
This course empowers you to collaboratively explore the environmental systems you care most about, challenge prior assumptions, and engage with diverse perspectives. Building on the tools and frameworks introduced in Fall 1 (Mods and ENV 553), ENV 554 provides space to apply and experiment with leadership and systems-thinking approaches through in-class exercises, peer discussion, and small group work organized around shared interests. The course also features practitioner-expert guest speakers with diverse experiences across sectors, geographies, and change strategies—from joining existing organizations, to growing start-ups, to building coalitions for systemic impact. Combined with ENV 553, this course is designed to strengthen your leadership tool kit, deepen your systems-thinking skills, and help you design a purposeful, impactful path through Yale and beyond. As with ENV 553, both leadership and systems-thinking work are grounded in an appreciation of your unique perspective and the valuable perspectives of others.