Award Winner for Volume 21
Higher Education Institutions’ Role in Developing Future Leaders for Sustainability: Incorporating the Inner Development Goals
This article examines the central role that higher education can play in addressing the wicked problem of sustainability by simultaneously integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) into its curriculum, research, and community engagement activities. The Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, with a plan of action to move our global society toward a “sustainable and resilient path.” It includes 17 SDGs and 169 targets. The SDGs help organize our global efforts toward addressing sustainability and provide a solid framework for colleges and universities to follow. The SDGs only take us so far, though, as we continue to work against societal values that reinforce unsustainable behaviors. The IDGs, however, integrate an inner dimension that helps us move toward a mindset where sustainable change and societal values more closely align. Using a case study from a small Franciscan university, the author will demonstrate a higher education institution’s (HEI) impact on developing a lasting sustainability mindset in its students that leads to sustainable change. Students undergo a transformative experience that moves beyond epistemic transformation to personal transformation, resulting in the reframing of their values and worldviews.
My scholarly journey began with a foundational experience that revealed my calling and set the intellectual path I continue to follow today. As a doctoral graduate assistant, I helped coordinate a park restoration project in Reading, Pennsylvania. This community-based experience demonstrated firsthand the transformative power of experiential learning rooted in place and community. That experience shaped my dissertation and launched a research agenda focused on student leadership development through sustainability-focused experiential learning.
This article is where my personal calling and scholarly contribution meet. It addresses a critical gap in the sustainability field: only 18% of the targets within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are on track for 2030. Addressing our sustainability crisis demands that individuals develop not only content knowledge but also inner capacities to reflect deeply, collaborate effectively, and act with courage and compassion. By integrating the SDGs with the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) Framework into a transformative education model, this research advances a more comprehensive vision of sustainability leadership, creating the conditions for lasting personal and societal transformation to take root.
Grounded in practitioner-scholarship and community-engaged research, this work generates practical insights from curriculum design, student development, and institutional sustainability efforts. Yet its most meaningful outcome extends beyond scholarship. The students I had the privilege of working with inspired this research as much as they informed it. That shared experience moved us to co-found Sustainable Misfits together after they graduated, a nonprofit built on the belief that every student deserves access to the same transformative, real-world immersion experiences to ignite their potential as the next generation of sustainability leaders.
With 254 million students enrolled in higher education globally, this replicable model carries considerable potential and reflects the community-rooted, transformative work that has defined my scholarly path from the beginning.
—Alicia H. H. Sprow