WashU Sustainability Community, It brings me great pleasure to announce the launch of the WashU Climate Corps. Over the last several months, a collaboration of university departments and regional non-profit partners worked with Campus Compact to become a host site for the Campus Climate Action Corps, a national AmeriCorps program dedicated to campus-based, community-led climate action. The WashU Climate Corps will significantly expand our capacity to advance sustainability and climate work not only at WashU but in the St. Louis community, anchoring our team in WashU’s “In St. Louis, For St. Louis” commitment.
The first year of the WashU Climate Corps will run from mid-September 2024 through the end of July 2025 and have three focus areas: 1) energy conservation and carbon reduction, 2) urban trees and ecology, and 3) circularity and solid waste pollution prevention. Each focus area will be led by one full-time member and supported by part-time members, whose time will be split equally between projects at WashU and in the community. All WashU Climate Corps members will work as a larger team to support activities and service events across programmatic areas, such as tree plantings, energy efficiency upgrades, and community clean ups.
We were excited to be accepted into the program and are now engaged in an accelerated hiring timeline to identify, interview, and on-board excellent candidates forthree full-time and three part-time AmeriCorps members. The full-time roles may be a fit for recent graduates, retirees, and individuals looking to change careers. The part-time roles are designed for current WashU students able to work 10 hours/week. With all of the groundbreaking work and historic investments developing climate solutions at WashU, this is an exciting time to join the WashU Climate Corps. We are asking all interested parties to complete their applications no later than August 30th. For more information and to apply for positions, please visit our WashU Climate Corps webpage.
I hope you will read about the program and either apply yourself or share this information with anyone you know who might be interested. Thank you in advance for your role in helping us launch this exciting new program. Sincerely, Phil Valko Assistant Vice Chancellor for Sustainability
