UC CaliforniaClimate Stewards
At a glance
- What
- A design-thinking engagement for UC Agriculture & Natural Resources
- My role
- UX research and facilitation
- Outcome
- A community-of-practice platform for 9,000+ stewardship alumni
- Method
- Stakeholder interviews · personas · journey mapping
Impact at scale
The numbers that mattered.
0+
Certified Alumni
across California
0K+
Volunteer Hours
contributed statewide
0
Counties Served
every county in CA
$0M+
Impact Value
in volunteer service
I'm a certified Climate Steward. I took the course, did the fieldwork, got the certificate. When I found out the organization had zero infrastructure to keep alumni connected after graduation, it felt personal. So I emailed the program director, pitched a collab with my grad school's Design Thinking cohort, and a week later we had our first working session.
Four months. Five people. We ran interviews, dug through survey data from 1,302 alumni, and built two working prototypes. We ended up recommending Discord. Not the obvious pick for an environmental nonprofit, but the right one.
Process
Design Thinking, applied.
Context
9,000 alumni across California.
No way to reach any of them.
UC Environmental Stewards runs two certification courses (California Naturalist and Climate Stewards) through UC Agriculture & Natural Resources. We're talking 40+ hours of classroom and field learning with 70+ partner orgs. The program's been going for 13 years and recently expanded to Oregon, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
In April 2024 they created a brand-new "Community of Practice Educator" position. That tells you how seriously they took the gap. Ali stepped into that role with real ambition but no framework. No playbook. Just 9,000 alumni and a blank whiteboard.
I'd just finished my Climate Stewards certification through Columbia College, so on August 28 I emailed the director and proposed a collab with my grad program's Design Thinking cohort. He connected me with Ali the same day. September 6, first working session.
The organization
Gregory C. Ira
Program strategy
Ali Stefancich
New role, April 2024
5 across California
Community education
8 people
9,000+ alumni statewide
The Challenge
"I graduated this course...
now what?"
People invest $1,500-$2,000 and 40+ hours into these courses, then basically graduate into silence. No follow-up. No community. No next step. That phrase kept showing up in every interview we did.
Geographic dispersion
9,000 alumni scattered across 58 counties with no way to find each other.
Diverse demographics
College students to retirees. Wildly different comfort levels with tech.
Broken volunteer tracking
The volunteer portal was so painful that people just stopped logging hours.
Minimal staffing
8 staff members. Statewide. Everyone already had a full plate.
No engagement framework
Ali's role was brand new. No precedent, no playbook, no budget.
How might we create a system that keeps alumni, staff, and partner organizations consistently engaged after certification?
Our design challenge
Research
1,302 survey responses.
A few honest conversations.
Stakeholder interviews
We ran 15-minute ethnographic listening sessions with alumni we recruited through the program newsletter. I drafted the recruitment blurb and handled client communication throughout the engagement. Three conversations stood out:
Early graduate, active community member
Already deeply engaged through nature journaling, hiking groups, and local government. Mentioned a 2022 statewide conference as "absolutely excellent" and wanted it revived. Of hundreds of alumni in her region, she was the only one showing up to events.
Prospective student, grassroots organizer
Founded a community garden. Active in Monarch Fellowship and Wild Ones. Wanted the certification for professional legitimacy, not knowledge. Preferred Zoom and roundtables but acknowledged attendance drops off quickly.
Retired alumna, early adopter
Pointed out that a 2024 Facebook group had just 17 members. Recommended nature journaling and themed hiking events as low-friction engagement models. Volunteered to help brainstorm, which said a lot about the untapped willingness in the alumni base.
Alumni impact survey
Ali shared survey data from 1,302 respondents. This gave us the quantitative backbone to pair with what we'd been hearing in interviews.
Enrollment by Year
California Naturalist course · 1,101 responses
Course Satisfaction
1,252 responses
96.2% somewhat or fully satisfied
Capstone Project Still Having Impact?
1,231 responses
Volunteer Portal Usage
Of those who volunteer · 443 responses
56% record less than half their hours
80%
Course satisfaction
Satisfied with what they learned
73%
Post-course engagement
Volunteered after certification
59%
Lasting stewardship
Capstone project still having impact
66%
Volunteer capacity
Improved their ability to contribute
25%
Career impact
Changed academic or career direction
37%
Volunteering more
Increased their volunteer hours
User Needs
Four types of need.
We mapped the interview and survey data into four categories. Each one pointed toward different design requirements.
Functional
A platform that actually works. Resource libraries, event calendars, job boards. The basic infrastructure.
Emotional
Feeling like you belong to something after graduation. Getting recognized for the work you do.
Psychological
Staying current. Continuing to learn. Feeling confident that your knowledge isn't going stale.
Social
Connecting with other alumni regardless of where they are. Finding people to work on projects with.
What we prioritized
Ideation
15 ideas in. 3 out.
We threw everything at the wall. Digital platforms, community structures, incentive programs. A few ideas I personally pushed hard for (Geo-Leaders, reviving the statewide conference, geographic hub groups) made it into the final pitch set.
Ali narrowed us to four finalists. The Alumni Tab and SharePoint concepts overlapped enough that we merged them into one "Digital Resource Platform" idea and moved forward with two distinct prototypes.
Client pick
"What's Next?" Training
Attacks the post-graduation void directly, at the partner org level.
Client pick
Digital Resource Platform
Merged Alumni Tab + SharePoint into one centralized hub concept.
Client pick
Mentorship Connect
Bridges generational gaps. Connects newer alumni with experienced stewards.
From ideas to prototypes.
Prototypes
Two paths. One recommendation.
We built both prototypes as functional demos, not mockups. Each one evaluated against accessibility, maintenance burden, and whether it would actually foster real community engagement.
Discord
RecommendedA fully configured server with regional channels for Northern, Central, Southern, and Desert California. Program-specific channels for Alumni Spotlight, Mentorship Connect, and Geo-Leaders. We seeded it with canned responses showing actual use cases.
Why it won
- Free at base level
- Real-time text, voice, and video
- Channel structure maps perfectly to regions
- Self-sustaining once community takes hold
Trade-offs
- Limited file storage
- Learning curve for less technical users
- Needs active moderation at launch
- Not enterprise-grade security
SharePoint
A comprehensive SharePoint site with document management, alumni directories, event calendars, engagement analytics, and granular access controls. All built on existing Microsoft 365 infrastructure the university already pays for.
UC Environmental Stewards
Community of Practice Portal
Welcome to the Alumni Hub
Resources, events, and community for 9,000+ certified stewards
Resources
Events
Directory
Volunteer Log
Newsletter
Contact Staff
Community portal home page
Events Calendar
Nature Walk — Northern CA
Virtual Alumni Meetup
Volunteer Training Session
Event calendar integration
Strengths
- Enterprise-grade document management
- Robust security and permissions
- Microsoft 365 integration
- Workflow automation
Trade-offs
- Requires paid subscription
- Complex setup (needs IT knowledge)
- Less social and interactive
- Steeper learning curve
Outcome
One platform. A real path forward.
On December 5, 2024, we delivered a Learning Guide recommending Discord as the primary community platform. The logic: it's free, low-maintenance, and becomes self-sustaining once a critical mass of members starts engaging. That matters when you have 8 staff members and 9,000 alumni.
What we delivered
Implementation roadmap
Survey alumni on Discord familiarity and willingness to join
Beta test with a small group before rolling it out
Train admins and establish a social media use agreement
Iterate with transparent communication during the build period
What I learned
Being the insider changes everything.
I took the same course these alumni took. I know what the fieldwork feels like, what the certification means, and what the silence afterward feels like. That made every interview more honest and every design decision more grounded than anything desk research could have produced.
Design for the people who maintain it.
An 8-person team can't manage a high-maintenance platform for 9,000 users. Discord won partly because it can become self-sustaining. The best design acknowledges operational reality, not just user desires.
Geography is a design variable.
58 counties across a state the size of California means no single engagement model works everywhere. Regional channels and Geo-Leaders weren't nice-to-haves. They were the architecture.
The real deliverable was momentum.
We handed over prototypes and a guide. But the bigger thing was showing Ali's team that they could start small, iterate quickly, and build without waiting for a massive budget or a new hire.
My role
Project originator
Sourced the client through my own Climate Stewards certification
Client relationship lead
Primary point of contact with Ali throughout the engagement
Subject matter expert
Brought firsthand experience as a certified Climate Steward
Ideation lead
Pushed Geo-Leaders, statewide conference revival, and hub group concepts
Research coordinator
Drafted alumni recruitment materials and coordinated listening sessions
Deliverable author
Co-authored the Design Brief, Design Criteria, Prototype Report, and Learning Guide
Timeline
Emailed program director. Connected with Ali same day.
First team working session with Ali (virtual).
Design Brief v2.0 delivered.
Newsletter out. First alumni listening sessions.
Design Criteria document issued.
Discord and SharePoint prototypes presented.
Learning Guide delivered. Engagement complete.
Like what you see?
I'm always open to discussing new opportunities, creative projects, or just nerding out about design and technology.
Graduate Design Thinking Engagement · Fall 2024