Environmental studies educators often struggle to integrate the social and natural worlds into learning processes in higher educational settings. This is particularly challenging for interdiscipilary approaches intending to inspire a sense of agency for social change. Affective awareness is a learning goal drawing these challenges together that aims to awaken a sense of personal and collective empowerment for students by fostering a spark of interest and wonder through formative relationships with environmental issues. By combining modalities of authentic learning such as online forums, project-based learning, and applied case studies towards affective awareness skill-building, educators can improve a student's sense of agency alongside practial and discipline specific skills-based learning. Central to the approach is encouraging whole systems thinking, the ability to situate oneself and interests within complex socio-ecological systems. This session will present a teaching and learning model and four semeseter long case study of the approach developed through the undergraduate, environmental studies course 'Social Responsibility and the World of Nature' offered at Pace University in NYC. An aim for the presentation is to offer educators and researchers useful insights and best practices for improving their own interdisciplinary programs and learning community building efforts.

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