How Universities Can Help Students Combat Eco-Anxiety

(Photo by iStock/Jovanmandic)

Today’s college students are coming of age in a warming world, growing up as climate change has accelerated into an intensifying crisis that leaves no community untouched. Research shows many young people are experiencing adverse psychological and emotional impacts as a result.

What might educators do to counter this trend? A university program I led over the past academic year offers some promising insights into supporting students through a combination of career preparation, community connection, and personal empowerment.

Eco-Anxiety in the Classroom

In 2021, an estimated 85 percent of the world’s population had already been affected by human-driven climate change, including extreme weather events, fires, changes in water resources, and temperature rise. When surveyed, people around the world consistently rank climate change as one of the greatest perceived long-term risks to society.

For many college students, the unfolding climate crisis is something thought about daily. A recent landmark study reported over 80 percent of young people around the globe were at least moderately worried about climate change. The same survey suggested more than half of individuals felt sad, anxious, angry, powerless, and guilty when thinking about it. More than 45 percent of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning.

Although estimates vary, hundreds of millions of people could be experiencing some type of adverse psychological or negative socioemotional response to the climate emergency. Commonly referred to as eco-anxiety, defined by the American Psychological Association as the “chronic fear of environmental doom,” these reactions can range from mild stress to clinical disorders like depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide, and maladaptive coping strategies such as intimate partner violence and substance misuse. To encompass a wider range of emotional responses, the terms “climate stress” and “climate distress” are also frequently utilized in reference to the same phenomenon.

Some colleges and universities have begun to respond by creating classes or launching related degree programs to assist students in codifying learnings about the crisis. A few others have started workshop series for students centered around the mitigation of eco-anxiety, with some also offering counseling through existing institutional systems.

But many therapists and counselors aren’t trained to provide young people with specific support around ecologically-rooted concerns, in part due to a lack of research about climate distress as a distinct phenomenon. Most instructors and administrators across higher education are largely unfamiliar with eco-anxiety among students for the same reason, resulting in a significant gap in programming for the age groups that need it the most.

Taking Action Beyond Activism

As researchers continue delving into the topic, a growing amount of evidence suggests taking action can help significantly in mitigating climate distress, particularly before it becomes clinically significant.

Perhaps the most common form of action is engaging in activism, including attending a protest or rally, volunteering, donating money to relevant organizations, or contacting elected officials to urge them to address climate change. And younger adults are doing this, with individuals ages 18 to 29 participating in these activities at rates nearly double of those in other age groups.

In 2019, the Global Climate Strike saw over 7.6 million people participate across 185 countries. In 2023, tens of thousands of people filled the streets of New York City, calling for an end to fossil fuel usage ahead of UN meetings on the topic. Organizations like the Sunrise Movement support young people in identifying more opportunities for local action.

Activism is perhaps the method students are most familiar with, particularly since calls for involvement are frequently seen on social media; however, it is not the only form of action. By supporting students in applying their learnings outside the confines of a traditional classroom, entrepreneurially-rooted experiential learning programs provide a unique opportunity for young people to chart personalized pathways forward in the climate and sustainability space.

Learn, Test, Create

Over the past several years, I’ve had the unique opportunity as a young woman to become an entrepreneurial changemaker within post-secondary education, piloting programs and building a variety of academic curriculums for unique student populations. With a background in social epidemiology and community well-being, I have also reported extensively on eco-anxiety, providing a unique positioning in this discussion. I firmly believe higher education is standing on a critical precipice, one where many of the existing methodologies of teaching and engagement no longer meet the needs of students or the talent demands of employers. This is particularly evident in the climate and sustainability space.

Over the 2023-24 academic year, I led the pilot of an experiential learning program at the University of Connecticut, called ClimateWerx, that was centered around supporting participants in transforming their passions in sustainability and climate change into action through hands-on experience. In addition to furthering knowledge competencies that may be complementary to their degree tracks, students developed their creativity, critical thinking, adaptability, and resiliency through entrepreneurial opportunities. Intentionally housed outside of any specific academic program or department, ClimateWerx constructs a truly multidisciplinary space for students to engage with peers passionate about the same issues in a variety of contexts. The inaugural cohort included 15 students, representing 11 different majors and five different schools and colleges within the university. The students were across levels in their undergraduate study, and about half were first-generation college students.

For the first semester, students participated in a weekly seminar-style course, building a foundational knowledge necessary for involvement in ClimateWerx. Because each member of the cohort approaches the topics from a different disciplinary and experiential lens, it’s crucial to craft a shared body of collective knowledge around issues including renewable energy, planetary health and population displacement, effects felt in the natural world, and environmental justice and community infrastructure. In this course, students also gain a practical understanding of relevant entrepreneurial skill sets and pathways for becoming further involved in sustainability and climate at the university, identifying opportunities and applying knowledge to real-world contexts.

In the second semester of ClimateWerx, students were supported in completing part-time, compensated placements to engage beyond the traditional boundaries of a classroom setting. For some, this took the form of completing lab-based research projects around sustainable aviation or ecological preservation. Others interned in a variety of roles at climate-oriented startups, with companies ranging from impact investment marketplaces to AI-informed crop health. A few students opted instead to utilize the time and resources to further develop an idea of their own, with one building thought leadership around sustainable fashion practices and two others working jointly to create a community-based organization. The group also engaged in an activity together each week to reinforce learnings and cultivate connections, often in the form of a site visit, guest speaker, or themed discussion. Pursuing projects closely aligned with their future career paths allows students to acquire both specialized and broad experience through hands-on work.

Building Bridges

By connecting with fellow students who share similar interests and goals, as well as mentors who possess experience and expertise, ClimateWerx aims to seed a sense of belonging through intergenerational community. This network acts as a foundational structure that not only encourages learning and growth but creates a supportive scaffolding that will transcend their time at the university.

Several students noted that their involvement in the ClimateWerx program was like nothing else they’d experienced previously, enjoying the opportunities to become friends with people they otherwise might not have met as well as explore emerging career pathways. Feedback from the students’ supervisors and mentors was also similarly positive, highlighting their preparedness and eagerness to engage. The majority of cohort members received offers from their second-semester placement to either continue on in their projects or return in another capacity.

Through use-inspired collaboration with peers, faculty, and local stakeholders, students find a supportive environment where they can share concerns, exchange ideas, and collectively work towards solutions to environmental challenges. This sense of belonging and purpose empowers students to move beyond feelings of helplessness and despair, instead harnessing their emotions as catalysts for meaningful action, cultivating a sense of agency and hope for a more resilient future.

Young people, eager to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to address pressing global challenges, show a strong interest in participating in such programs. Likewise, industries recognize the value of recruiting individuals equipped with expertise in sustainability and climate solutions, yet they struggle to find recent graduates with relevant experiences as few direct degree tracks exist in the space. This dual demand underscores the relevance and effectiveness of tailored experiential educational programs in meeting the needs of both students and industry stakeholders, beginning to close the gap in trained talent. In the absence of such support, there is a significant risk of burnout and other psychosocial challenges developing, increasing the likelihood of losing highly skilled professionals from the workforce at a time when their expertise is most critical.

By immersing individuals in real-world experiences around complex societal problems such as climate change, we can help cultivate a deeper awareness of these issues and empower students today to become proactive, resilient agents of change in their communities, now and for many years in the future.

Read more stories by Zoey England.