The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth is launching the Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Academy after receiving a $25 million gift from University of Chicago Trustee Michael Polsky, MBA ’87, founder and CEO of Invenergy, and Tanya Polsky.
The Polsky Academy supports key components of the Chicago Curriculum on Climate and Sustainable Growth, a 360-degree approach to education on climate change that exposes students to the foundational ideas, tradeoffs, and complexities of the global climate and sustainable growth challenge. The curriculum will serve as the foundation for a series of new degree programs at the undergraduate and master’s levels at the University of Chicago, the first of which—an undergraduate major—was recently announced.
An important aspect of the major will be an experiential course taken during a September term that the Polsky Academy supports. After taking a set of foundational courses that explore the climate and growth challenge from multiple perspectives—from climate science, economics, politics and to energy technologies and humanistic approaches to climate—students will be required to travel to several locations key to understanding global perspectives surrounding the climate and sustainable growth challenge. For example, the course could bring students to rural India or sub-Saharan Africa to experience life with little electricity and see what it is like to live on the frontline of climate damages; to West Texas to see the potential local economic benefits and pollution challenges of living in an energy boom town; to New York City to meet with capital allocators who are focused on private returns to their investments; and to capitals around the world to meet with policymakers and witness how they balance the costs and benefits of climate policies.
“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,” says Michael Greenstone, the faculty director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth. “We’re so grateful to the Polsky Foundation, because their gift makes it possible for students from across the University to enroll in this incredibly valuable September term course.”
In addition to sponsoring the September term, the Polsky Academy will support a set of experiential and career development opportunities that the Institute has been fostering. It will cultivate experiences for students to network with policymakers, innovators, and industry leaders through participation in conferences and summits. Additionally, it will provide real-world learning experiences and mentorship opportunities through internship placements and research assistantships that teach students the research process while expanding their understanding of the energy transition.
The global energy transition will also require talented business professionals to create and lead future-focused organizations in this industry. To enhance the intersection between business, leadership, and the energy transition, half of the gift from Michael and Tanya Polsky will support Chicago Booth in serving as a key partner to the activities of the Polsky Academy through the Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Program.
The Program will provide students with unique perspectives focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and the private sector—leveraging support from across Booth, including its Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. It will do so through five key areas: scholarship, faculty engagement and curriculum development, entrepreneurship, co-curricular educational programming, and career support.
With a robust history of preparing future leaders for impact across fields and as the birthplace of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Chicago Booth is well-positioned to contribute to the Polsky Academy’s work. This investment will be critical in building more energy transition opportunities for students to launch a new generation of leaders to innovate and transform the global energy transition.