This is a summary of a story by Cara August, Margo Lakin and Elizabeth Richardson on Trinity College of Arts & Sciences .
Duke students in Laura Bilanceri's Italian language class will come out of it with more than the ability to order a cappuccino or ask a stranger for directions to the closest train station in Rome. They'll also understand more about important issues around climate and the environment.
As a Climate and Sustainability Teaching Fellow, Bilanceri is tasked with connecting her area of expertise with contemporary climate and sustainability issues - part of Duke's new goal to build climate fluency for all students regardless of major.
This semester, Duke welcomed its fourth cohort of faculty members to this annual effort, fellows eager to bring new perspectives to an array of disciplines and help students connect more broadly to the world around them. Bilanceri's students are asked to compare Italian and American approaches to food waste, secondhand consumption and migration.
"I want students to discuss sustainable practices in Italian with confidence and accuracy, using vocabulary and grammatical structures beyond ordinary conversation," she said.
Across campus, chemistry professor Jim Parise is offering "Is Chemistry Real?" - one of 16 new Trinity Century Courses that teach students to use chemistry to solve everyday questions.
"There are opportunities all over campus to make chemistry more tangible for our students," he shared. "I want them to recognize scientific concepts in their immediate world while also understanding how those ideas connect to the larger questions around energy, the environment and sustainability."
Katie Hyde in the Program in Education takes a similar approach in her documentary studies course, "Children's Self-Expression - Literacy Through Photography." In the class, Duke students collaborate with Durham children and teens to tell creative, environmental stories. Their work takes them into the community, with partners like SEEDS and the Duke Hub Farm.
"The experiential, service-learning component is the heart of my class," said Hyde, "not just an add-on."
To learn more about these and other climate fluency efforts, go to Trinity College of Arts & Sciences .
