Penn State Outreach and Sustain Penn State have selected four educators from across Pennsylvania as the inaugural K-12 Impact Fellows in Sustainability, a new pilot fellowship that supports teachers in developing classroom-ready sustainability and climate-resilience projects aligned with the state’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability (PA STEELS) Standards.
The fellowship grew out of Penn State’s K-12 Sustainability Summits and focuses on helping educators translate climate science and sustainability concepts into meaningful learning experiences for high school students. Through the program, fellows will design activities that allow students to analyze greenhouse gas emissions in their schools or communities and explore solutions to draw down greenhouse gas emissions and make their communities more resilient to climate change.
Fellows are deriving their work from the model of the Local Climate Action Program (LCAP), an initiative first developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and now run by Penn State through the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Sustain Penn State. In LCAP, Penn State students partner with municipalities, counties, or state agencies to develop greenhouse gas inventories and then support local efforts to develop climate action and adaptation plans. The K-12 Fellows are developing similar efforts scaled to age-appropriate learning and focused on individual schools or school districts.
The four educators selected for the inaugural cohort represent diverse disciplines and school communities across Pennsylvania:
- AJ Mannarino, Technology Education Teacher, South Fayette Township School District
- Alex Oliver, Environmental Science Teacher, Lewisburg Area School District
- Carrie Lankford, STEELS Instructional Coach, Red Lion Area School District, and Hub Lead, Pennsylvania Environmental Literacy Network (Southcentral Hub)
- Erica Stefanovich, Social Studies and Agriculture Teacher, Lankenau Environmental Science Magnet High School (School District of Philadelphia)
Over the next year, fellows will collaborate with Penn State faculty and sustainability experts to develop pilot classroom projects that connect global climate challenges to local data and decision-making.
Launching the Fellowship
The fellowship kicked off with a Local Climate Action Program K-12 Retreat at Penn State University Park on February 6, 2026. The workshop introduced educators to the process of conducting a greenhouse gas inventory and explored how the tools used by local governments and organizations can be adapted for classroom learning.
Throughout the day, fellows discussed real-world case studies, focused on goals and competencies they wanted to advance for their students, and began designing curriculum that will allow students to investigate and address climate impacts within their own schools and communities.
By the end of the retreat, educators had begun drafting lessons and activities that help students:
- Understand greenhouse gas emissions, from global systems to local schools and districts
- Conduct or analyze institutional greenhouse gas inventories
- Identify strategies that organizations can use to reduce emissions and improve resilience
The curriculum will be refined throughout the fellowship and aligned with PA STEELS standards and career and technical education pathways.
Bringing Climate Learning into the Classroom
Each fellow brings a unique perspective on how sustainability education can empower students to understand complex systems and take meaningful action.
Alex Oliver, an environmental science teacher in Lewisburg Area School District, said helping students understand climate change while also empowering them with solutions is central to his teaching.
“Teaching about climate change and our responsibility to future generations is at the core of my mission as an educator,” Oliver said. “I try to ensure students understand the seriousness of the issue while also feeling agency and optimism about how they can respond.”
AJ Mannarino, a technology education teacher in South Fayette School District, plans to integrate greenhouse gas inventorying into a new environmental engineering course so students can analyze real-world environmental data.
“Understanding the sources and impacts of greenhouse gas emissions will allow me to bring authentic environmental engineering practices into my classroom,” Mannarino said. “This work helps students see climate change as a solvable, data-driven problem connected to their own school and community.”
For Erica Stefanovich, who teaches GIS and agriculture in Philadelphia, the fellowship provides an opportunity to strengthen climate education in urban environments.
“Urban spaces are often left out when discussing sustainability and natural resource management,” Stefanovich said. “Preparing students for careers in environmentalism and sustainability means helping them understand the data and planning decisions that shape resilient cities.”
Carrie Lankford, who has spent nearly two decades teaching environmental education, sees the fellowship as a way to expand environmental learning for older students.
“Every single student will have to deal with the environment and the decisions we make that impact it,” Lankford said. “Students should understand the challenges we face, but they should also feel empowered to make positive changes.”
What Comes Next
The fellowship will continue throughout 2026 and into the 2026–27 academic year.
In May, fellows will present early versions of their project ideas at the Penn State Climate Solutions Symposium, where they will receive feedback from researchers, practitioners, and fellow educators.
During the following school year, they will implement their pilot projects with students, testing new approaches to climate and sustainability education. They will also return for Penn State’s 2026 K-12 Sustainability Summit to help share their curricula with other teachers across the state in peer-to-peer mentoring.
Through collaboration with Penn State partners and the Prepare PA Network, the educators will refine their lessons and share resources with other schools across the commonwealth.
The goal of the program is to strengthen sustainability education in individual classrooms and to help build a growing network of educators preparing students to understand and shape the environmental issues and decisions that will define their future.