Westmont College’s Faith.Climate.Action Program Spreads the Environmental Word

When Beatrice Mae Shackleford joined Westmont College’s Faith.Climate.Action program, she was unsure how to advocate for the environment within her faith community, but she left with the confidence to act. “I felt very passionate about climate communication, especially in the context of my faith community, but I felt insecure and ill-equipped to actually take action in my local community,” Shackleford said in an email interview.

She was studying environmental science at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa, when a professor told her about the program in 2024. While participating in the Westmont program, Shackleford met other Christians doing environmental work, helping to replace that isolation with a sense of possibility, she said. The friendships she formed continued after the program, and she returned to Westmont for its final retreat this summer.

One of Shackleford’s favorite moments was hearing participants describe the work underway at their colleges. The presentations showed her that addressing climate change and humanity’s relationship with the environment could become an opportunity for “joy, creativity, and community,” she said.

Westmont professors Amanda Sparkman and Christine Seibert organized Faith.Climate.Action to connect college students and faculty from Christian institutions who care about environmental issues but may be uncertain how climate advocacy fits within their faith communities.

The three-year program, which concluded after this year’s summer retreat on Westmont’s Santa Barbara campus, brought together 137 participants from 26 colleges and nine related organizations, representing 16 U.S. states and one Canadian province. Participants studied climate communication, spiritual practices and advocacy. Shackleford said the training emphasized storytelling and shared values instead of relying on statistics, fear, or guilt to persuade an audience.

The program also introduced participants to research and communication tools from organizations including the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Josh Low, who leads the Yale program, trained and coached participants on project strategy. He said the program helped students and faculty turn concern about climate change into action within their communities.

“While upward of 60 percent of young evangelicals recognize the reality of our changing climate, the desire to advocate for creation care can often feel like a solitary journey,” Low said in a written statement. “There is a growing community of Christians working to change that.”

Shackleford said one of the hardest parts was overcoming her fear that discussing climate change would cause people in her Christian community to place her into a political or social category. That fear contributed to loneliness and made her question whether she could create change.

Speaking with friends and community members challenged that belief. Shackleford found that other people cared about environmental problems, had experienced their effects and were already searching for local solutions.

The experience also changed Shackleford’s academic and professional direction. Through Faith.Climate.Action, she connected with the Christian Climate Observers Program and attended the United Nations climate conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2024.

She later spoke about climate change and faith in churches and schools and became a co-host of the “Rivers in the Desert” podcast. She is now pursuing a master’s degree in climate science and solutions at the Yale School of the Environment. Shackleford said she hopes to work at the intersection of climate action, faith, and community engagement by helping communities connect their values to practical local solutions.

Her work at the Montecito campus has also continued at Dordt. At the most recent retreat, Shackleford helped develop an initial plan for a university composting program that faculty and student leaders are implementing this year.

Correction: The name of the student in this article was corrected to Beatrice Mae Shackleford.