I am not ashamed to say it, because I know it is true:

My students mentor me!

This is especially the case when it comes to living a sustainable lifestyle. Sure, I provide comprehensive lectures full of information, data, case studies, and relevant material. I facilitate learning in the classroom. Yet, knowledge in my seminars do not flow in only one direction. I am constantly learning and growing as a result of my “students’” capacities to teach, mentor and inspire me.

I’m not afraid to come out of closet about this reciprocal relationship – I never have been. However, I have recently been emboldened because “reverse mentoring” is one of the latest key principles acknowledged in business and leadership communities. The concept gained widespread attention when Jack Welch, then-chairman of GE, instructed several hundred of his top managers to work with younger employees to learn about the Internet. It is now taking the Christian community by storm, thanks to Earl Crep’s new book Reverse Mentoring: How Young Leaders Can Transform the Church and Why We Should Let Them. Commenting on the book, Reggie McNeal states “The richness of life sharing that is established in reverse mentoring is a largely unexplored, but promising green edge to the Christian movement.”

The King’s Green Pad will be an intergenerational blog. Most of the contributors are faculty and staff from The King’s University College, but many others are present students or recent alumni from the university. These young adults will inherit the ecological dilemmas of our generation, and they already have many ideas to address social, economic and environmental sustainability. Their role on the blog is not a token one. On the contrary, they have a tremendous amount to teach each of us, if we’re willing to listen.

Come back in fifteen days to experience the offical launch of the The King’s Green Pad!

This post was written by Michael Ferber, Assistant Professor of Geography and Director of Environmental Studies at The King’s University College in Edmonton, AB.