Sustainability and Conservation Leadership at ODU
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The Sustainability and Conservation Leadership (SCL) Program of Old Dominion University was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It has been educating students since 2017. The VCC is a place for the alumni and current students of the program to interact and share experiences and resources. The VCC aims to increase awareness of the triple challenge of climate change, biodiversity and wildlife loss, and pollution and to develop feasible options to adapt to a changing world in support of thriving communities. The Community of Practice in the VCC seeks to establish a collaborative community of students of Old Dominion University and to create connections with stakeholders from local to global scales. The club focuses on the new leadership required to tackle the many challenges in safeguarding the Earth's life-support system.

If you have been/are a student in ODU's SCL program or are interested in interacting with these students, feel free to join the VCC as a member.

ODUSCL VCC Billboard

[Jan. 08, 2026] Elizabeth River Project is hiring Seasonal Educator: The positions of part-time seasonal educators may be of interest to you. One is for the Learning Barge in Norfolk, VA and the other is at Paradise Creek Nature Park in Portsmouth, VA. The positions are both for ~25 hours a week at $15/hr. See more details in Learning Bark Announcement and Paradise Creek Nature Park Announcement. These are great entry-level opportunities for anyone passionate about the outdoors, working with kids, and the amazing Elizabeth River!

[Nov. 19, 2025] Seagrass Masters Research Opportunity (with funding): Hello everyone! I just recently met with Dr. Althea Moore at Texas A&M. She is starting a lab for seagrass restoration and resilience, and is looking for a prospective masters student with previous experience with seagrass. I have attached a link below with access to an application. Good luck and feel free to share! Read more at https://althea-moore-lab.owlstown.net/cv

News

ODUSCL VCC News

[Jan. 08, 2026] NYLC Speaks Up: The National Youth Leadership Council has published a thoughtful and considerate Statement on the killing of Renee Nicole Good, in which the NYLC “condemns the actions taken by federal immigration agents at Roosevelt High School and throughout Minneapolis.” The NYLC continues to state that “These events strike at the heart of what we believe leadership must be: rooted in empathy, guided by integrity, and committed to the civic responsibility of protecting the dignity and safety of all people.”

Platform News

[Jan. 09, 2026] Ocean Heat Content Sets Another Record in 2025: The analysis published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences reveals that global ocean warming continued unabated in 2025 in response to increased greenhouse gas concentrations and recent reductions in sulfate aerosols. In the article by Damian Carrington published in The Guardian, John Abraham, a member of the analysis team, is quoted: “Global warming is ocean warming. If you want to know how much the Earth has warmed or how fast we will warm into the future, the answer is in the oceans.”

[Dec. 21, 2025] How to tackle the Human Emergency: In his blog How to become Earth Citizens, Julian Cribb states that “we are now living amid the greatest emergency in humanity’s million-year tenure of the Earth.” He underlines that this emergency comprises ten existential threats that can not be addresses separately: Extinction, Resource Scarcity, Global Poisoning, WMD, Hothouse Earth, Food Scarcity, Uncontrolled Technologies, Pandemics, Overpopulation, Misinformation. “The Council for the Human Future describes this constellation of threats as ‘ the human emergency’.” Cribb emphasizes that “if we want to survive, humans must first agree to survive.” The Council for the Human Future “considers that now is the time for a new kind of human to emerge – the Earth Citizen.” This is what we also aim for here at Place4Us.