Celebrating emerging sustainability leaders from the University of Minnesota

September 2025

By Pamela Gray

In spring, the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) joined a cohort of undergraduate innovators from the University of Minnesota (UMN) Twin Cities to celebrate ending a year’s worth of leading sustainability projects.

An evening of reflection and congratulatory remarks showered the students for tackling food insecurity, environmental injustice, land access, and community development. “I'm incredibly impressed with the groups for working together and figuring out a way forward,” reflects program Co-director Mary Oldham-Hannemann. “Even when projects don't go the way they expect, leadership really is a team sport.”

Under UMN’s Institute on the Environment (IonE), the Undergraduate Leaders Program nurtures solution-minded representatives for concerns relating to sustainability and systemic inequality. This year-long opportunity exercises the will to enact change by assembling students and staff of various disciplines and abilities.

Bridging gaps with the Environmental Justice Expo Team

Left to right: Tylee Golden-Bordeaux, Maria Feiock, and Anaam Awad

Out of the five leadership groups assembled in the program, the Environmental Justice Expo Team is the first to seize a head start at planning for their spring exhibition. The annual Community-University Environmental Justice Summit gathers students, organizers, and community members to resolve issues concerning environmental injustice and the climate crisis.

“This was an experimental experience,” says Expo Team leader Tylee Golden-Bordeaux, who studies Anthropology and Philosophy with an American Indian Studies minor.

“One word? Informative," comments Maria Feiock, a fellow Expo Team leader and Biochemistry student.
How does this team manage over 100 attendees and more than 20 unique initiatives? By continuing their predecessors’ work of community outreach, partnership networking, venue landscaping, and mapping out the expo’s itinerary.

“It was impactful and groundbreaking because of the speakers plus everyone we’ve met,” speaks leader Anaam Awad. She recently graduated with a bachelor’s in Political Science and Psychology alongside a Sociology minor.

Dubbed the “Roots of Resilience,” the 2025 summit connects people through love, land, opportunity, voice, and equity. It is through the Undergraduate Leaders Program where students like Golden-Bordeaux, Feiock, and Awad cultivate the abilities to foster strong and long-lasting relationships across Twin Cities.

Collaborating with mentors

Thankfully, our leaders do not have to untangle such critical issues alone! The Program equips each team with their own crew of mentors who assist with project management, resource allocation, and navigating challenges. This foundation is pivotal for kickstarting the inter-generational exchange between established and upcoming leaders.

“Young people and movements all over the world have always been led by students, from the civil rights movement to the freedom rides to the bus boycotts and the sit-ins.”

– Michael Chaney, Program Mentor and Local Organizer

Mentorship is sourced from subject matter experts of the specific projects leaders tackle. Michael Chaney of Project Sweetie Pie is an Expo Team mentor who caught up with CERTs on his time with the leaders. Michael Chaney Portrait (green bucket hat)

“What I saw tonight was that communiversity in action,” reflects Chaney. “Young people and movements all over the world have always been led by students, from the civil rights movement to the freedom rides to the bus boycotts and the sit-ins.”

Being with the Expo Team for three years 2022, Chaney has been a champion of students leading our globe’s critical issues. “Get out of their way!” he exclaims, “Give them the leadership. Give them the reins of power. Let them be co-creators, co-designers, co-curators of a greener future.”

Students supporting students

But who’s running the show? Program operations are guided by a facilitation team passionate for their leaders’ success. They are responsible for conducting monthly cohort meetings with team check-ins, group exercises, and career building.

Left to right: Joyce Wong and Thi Ngyuen holding calligraphy signs New co-facilitator Thi Nguyen assumed more students and mentors would agree on all scopes and figure things out from day one.

“I did not expect how much pivoting this program required,” claims Nguyen. “It was a unique experience. I think to some extent, it contradicts what students are trained to do in traditional classrooms. It's really tricky. There’s always a different angle you have to consider.”

Nguyen’s time with the leaders reflects her doctoral studies in Comparative and International Development Education. “I learn a lot by watching the students go through this process. It is really inspiring to see how our emerging talents are able to overcome uncertainties and maintain a very resilient attitude.”

The co-facilitator position proudly appoints both undergrads and graduates to further bolster a student’s agency and leadership abilities. Peer-to-peer support increases the confidence in all participants and forms a secure environment for quality engagement.

“I was surprised by how much you have to juggle between five teams,” says co-facilitator Joyce Wong. Once a program leader herself, Wong returns as an administrator while pursuing her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering.

“It was hard to see the challenges other students were going through. But they figured it out in the end, and that was a good learning experience for them.”

— Joyce Wong, Program Co-facilitator

A sustainable future starts now

To close out the evening celebrations, Michael Chaney calls on everyone to nourish our global family. “Oftentimes as students, we see ourselves in isolation or as citizens without a community. That could be no further from the truth, because we're all citizens, leaders, environmentalists, and community doers.”

Check out more projects and initiatives from Program Team leaders