The Open Climate Curriculum (Open CC), part of the Business and Climate Change Initiative at the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change at Columbia Business School, is an initiative spearheaded by Professor Bruce Usher to democratize access to climate curriculum for educators everywhere. Open CC is a platform for climate educators that leverages AI to assist users in creating new or updating their existing syllabi and course materials. Educators can contribute their teaching assets, explore curated resources specific to their needs, and receive reliable recommendations on how to adapt their materials to reflect the rapidly evolving developments in the climate space.

My work revolved around crafting Open CC’s brand and translating that identity into storytelling on our website and marketing materials. Sample deliverables included a brand book, pitch decks, wireframes and content for the platform, and feedback analyses. The projects I worked on will aid Open CC by spreading their reach at events like "COP29" and "Climate Week NYC," recruiting contributors to the platform, and bringing more partners into the platform’s fold.

My learnings in Business School, particularly from my courses on marketing and media/tech, were broadly leveraged during my fellowship. For example, key elements from my Foundations of Marketing and Foundations of Innovation courses were critical in the execution of several of my marketing deliverables (e.g., pitch deck, brand book, platform content, etc.) where I had to apply learnings such as positioning statements, designing thinking, customer segmentation, and affinity mapping to my working processes. Courses such as Product Management and Intro to User Experience helped me understand how technology and “business” (in our case, social enterprise) principles had to bridge together in order to communicate both the mission and viability of the platform. To that end, diagramming solution architecture and documenting user journeys and experiences were critical skills derived from those courses that allowed me to successfully create deliverables, such as copy for our platform and analyses of user feedback.

My biggest challenge during this fellowship was having to craft the storyline of Open CC for a multitude of channels without the intrinsic knowledge of a founding member. In addition, there were changes that had to be identified, analyzed, and integrated into the storytelling process so that the team could fully capture the company’s journey. To thrive in this environment, I was compelled to take initiative and create my own deliverables so that my fellowship would produce key resources that could aid Open CC in the long-run. For example, I was constantly interviewing our founder, key team members, and our driving engineer to piece together different parts of Open CC to come up with a cohesive timeline that could be communicated succinctly to various audiences. From a brand perspective, I engaged with Columbia Business School's (CBS) marketing and communications department to have brand assets (e.g., a logo, typography, color scheme, etc.) created for the platform ahead of "Climate Week." These experiences taught me how to be an “intrapreneur” and thrive in ambiguity.

One of the reasons I signed up to work on Open CC was because I wanted to understand what solutions were arising at the intersection of climate, education, and tech. In addition, I wanted a startup-adjacent social enterprise experience that would open my eyes to the workings of both spaces. I was excited to work on both the mission-oriented and technical sides of the platform. My takeaway from this experience is that creativity and initiative go a long way in creating and communicating a brand. Because the platform was AI-based, I thought I’d be leveraging GenAI to some extent during my fellowship; ironically, there was no way I could ChatGPT my way out of crafting a story or designing a brand. In addition, I was delighted to have the chance to work on a nonprofit, mission-first platform. After gathering and analyzing user feedback, I was energized over and over again by the passion of people in the space, and I came out of this experience more ready than ever to tackle the biggest challenges at the heart of the climate change issue.