Sierra Sustainability Summit

The Sierra Sustainability Summit is a first-of-its-kind advocacy competition in which collegiate speech and debate team students spend three full days in Yosemite National Park where they learn how to apply advocacy skills to water and land management, conservation, public access, environmental justice, and equity. Students tour Yosemite Valley and Wawona with forest rangers and park employees, engaging in experiential learning about how the National Park System can address the increased demand for public access and encourage those who are historically disconnected from their public lands to become connected. This approach aims to attract diverse individuals to Yosemite and other public lands in a way that balances the need to preserve, maintain, and manage these spaces for future generations.

The idea for the Sierra Sustainability Summit was born while Program Director Shane Patrick and her husband, Dr. John Patrick, Co-Director of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Debate Team, were camping in Yosemite. Sitting around the campfire Dr. Patrick remarked, "I've taught at a bunch of speech and debate camps where I just sat in classrooms. It would hit so much harder to have a debate camp that actually involves camping.” Shane began excitedly talking about the role that public lands can play in educating students about environmental sustainability and community well-being. She then took the concept and ran with it, turning it into her capstone project for her master of public policy degree, envisioning the Sierra Sustainability Summit as an experiential learning program focused on advocacy surrounding public land management and conservation that gets students and faculty out of the classroom and into the physical environment they're supposed to be learning about.

Now an award-winning academic program, the Sierra Sustainability Summit brings students and faculty to Yosemite National Park for a one-of-a-kind learning experience that demonstrates national, state, and regional parks can partner with colleges and universities as learning sites not only for STEM fields and the arts, but also for students of advocacy, argumentation, and leadership. You can learn more by reading the event invite and judging manual linked above.