Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth

About the Chicago Curriculum

The Chicago Curriculum provides a roadmap for educating an entire generation of leaders, thinkers, and entrepreneurs on the seminal challenge of our time through foundational courses that examine the climate challenge from all angles and global experiences that widen their perspectives.

Degree Programs

Beginning in Fall 2025, undergraduate students may enroll in a distinctive new major in Climate and Sustainable Growth. A new one-year MS degree, the Master of Science in Climate and Energy Policy, will welcome its first cohort in Summer 2026.

Transformative Experiences

Any preparation of the next generation of climate leaders would be incomplete without global and real-world experiences and comprehensive mentoring. In addition to forming a degree program, the Chicago Curriculum serves as the foundation for a groundbreaking education program that combines classroom and experiential learning with real-world experience, training and mentorship to produce the next generation of energy and climate leaders. Some of these efforts are supported by the Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Academy.

Experiential Learning

After taking a set of foundational courses, students apply what they learned to an experiential course offered during a September term. The course widens students' perspectives by taking them around the world to places pivotal to understanding the climate and sustainable growth challenge. It is supported by the Polsky Academy.
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Career Development

Students gain real-world learning experiences and mentorship opportunities through internships in a variety of fields, as well as research assistantships. These efforts are supported by the Polsky Academy.
Undergraduate Research Program Internship Program

Global Experiences

Students have the opportunity to connect with global stakeholders through participation in treks and major energy gatherings like COP, CERA Week and the Clean Energy Ministerial. The opportunities are supported by the Polsky Academy.
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India Summer Fellows Program

In July 2025, the University of Chicago Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth and the Ahmedabad University Climate Institute jointly piloted a new India Summer Fellows Program.

*New Course* Climate Crossroads: Policy, Diplomacy, and the Global Future

Visiting lecturers John Podesta, former White House Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy; Hina Rabbani Khar, former Foreign Minister of Pakistan; and Sue Biniaz, Principal Deputy Special Envoy for Climate at the U.S. State Department will teach a special course on climate policy and international collaboration in Autumn 2025.

Education Staff

Conor Carney

Senior Instructional Professor

Katie Fassbinder

Associate Director, Educational Programs and Partnerships

Trista Trone

Student Affairs Administrator

Sativa Volbrecht

Student Engagement Administrator

Michael Greenstone

Faculty Director, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth

“We need a radical paradigm shift in how we approach the problem of climate change—one that appreciates that climate change is not a problem in isolation and that it must be balanced with the aspirations of billions of people on the planet who want a better life for themselves and their children. The Chicago Curriculum provides a robust, real-world understanding of the challenge using a unique approach that is designed for the students in our classrooms who will be tomorrow’s leaders.”

David Weisbach

Co-Director, Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth

“The idea is that the scientist or the engineer or the economist will go out into the world and not just have a very strong and specific understanding of their field but will have a deeper understanding of how their work fits into the bigger picture in a way that allows them to make better decisions. This approach will start here with University of Chicago undergraduates, but we hope it is an approach that will spread to other universities around the world. If more and more people approach climate change with this broad understanding and perspective, the world would be in a better position to take on this challenge.”

David Keith

Co-Director, Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth

“There’s only so much one can learn about the world sitting in Hyde Park. The experiential course will allow students to better understand competing perspectives they will encounter in the outside world by giving them a chance to talk with people balancing the climate and growth challenge every day. We hope this wider view will inform their future careers as citizens and professionals.”

Michael Greenstone

Faculty Director, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth

“The September term course is a cornerstone of the curriculum that will challenge students to hold multiple competing perspectives at once and use the new interdisciplinary tools they gained through their foundational coursework to better understand how to balance these perspectives, ultimately leading to more informed citizens and leaders.”

Bala Srinivasan

Senior Advisor, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth

“As a student, if you are to understand not just the world but yourself, there is only a limited understanding that you can get on campus. But should you go abroad and learn in Africa, in Europe, in Asia, then those environments and those academic settings almost act as a mirror in which you begin to recognize yourself, the limitations of your point of view, and how other people think in a way that’s very hard to do sitting in a classroom in Hyde Park.”