How Jeremy Jensen is Breaking Down Barriers to the Outdoors One Online Course at a Time
Header photo: POW Creative Alliance member & Founder of Crux Academy, Jeremy Jensen
POW Creative Alliance member, Jeremy Jensen is the mastermind behind Crux Academy, which offers online adventure courses taught by professional athletes in their discipline with the goal of making the outdoors a more accessible and inclusive place. Although Crux Academy didn’t officially launch until 2021, this idea has been in the back of Jensen’s mind for many years while running his Podcast, The Adventerprenuer where he interviews athletes, businesses and leaders in the outdoor space. On that podcast, he had the opportunity to interview POW’s Executive Director, Mario Molina in 2019 which made him realize that there was an opportunity to make climate advocacy work more accessible and tangible.
“Mario and I chatted about how to get others involved in climate advocacy work and noticed there was a barrier to getting people in the door,” said Jensen. “ We talked a lot about how people wonder what their role is and what they can do; because they know it’s important work, they just don’t know how to tackle it.”
Over the last 4 years since that podcast aired, Jensen has stayed closely connected with POW and began dabbling into climate advocacy work pretty heavily which led him to joining the Creative Alliance. Over many years and conversations, one idea had been in the back of Jensen’s head since that podcast aired in 2019 – there was a need for an online climate advocacy course that would help break down the barriers to entry and get more people involved in this important work. Last spring, Jensen attended the inaugural Creative Alliance Summit, where members pitched ideas for various projects and that’s where “Finding Common Ground: How to be a Climate Advocate” was born.
Jensen knew POW would be the perfect partner on this project because the outdoor community is uniquely positioned to have a big impact. “Not only because the Outdoor State is 50 million strong,” said Jensen. “It’s also a massive voting block and segment of the population to mobilize and have an impact on a policy level.”
The course is taught by many POW Alliance members, including Graham Zimmerman (professional alpinist), Michelle Parker (professional skier), Jeremy Jones (POW founder and professional snowboarder), Peyton Thomas (professional trail runner), Dakota Jones (professional trail runner) and more. These athletes have been on the frontlines of climate change bearing witness to the effects in real-time and working first-hand with lawmakers in D.C. to advocate for the outdoors. Participants will hear advice and in-depth analysis from their advocacy work.
The goal of the course is to give people a toolkit on how to take action on climate and leverage their voices. Jensen saw a gap, even as a Creative Alliance member, where he wasn’t 100% sure where to invest his energy to take action. “Finding Common Ground: How to be a Climate Advocate” will fill that hole.
“I wanted to know what actions are actually the most impactful and have the highest return or the highest impact,” said Jensen. “That’s one thing that became incredibly clear while building this project.”
During the course, participants will learn about the history of climate policy and how they can help POW shape it, the science of climate change and how we can support scientists, how to leverage their voice and be a climate advocate in their communities, how to find Common Ground with others and so much more.
Jensen says one of his favorite aspects of the course is learning how to stay positive. “We end the course on a note of positivity, and I’m really proud of that,” said Jensen. “There’s so much heavy content in this work, but learning how to stay positive and act accordingly is such an important part.”
When the course concludes, Jensen’s hope is that people will share the information they learn with others and apply the tools that they gain to the real world. He says by the end of the course, participants will have the tools to know what to do, why they’re doing it and who they could be doing it with. “In my experience, when people educate themselves they typically become inspired,” said Jensen. “Inspiration is a very strong mechanism, and when you become inspired you uniquely position yourself to take action.”
To learn more about and to start your journey on “Finding Common Ground: How to Be a Climate Advocate” click here. At the end of your course, you’ll also gain access to the full Crux course catalog for free! You’ll be able to take courses on trail running, backcountry skiing, mountain biking, long distance backpacking, thru-hiking and more! Additionally, Crux offers courses on diversity, equity and inclusion so that we can learn to be better allies and make the outdoors more diverse.
Author: Stacie Sullivan
Stacie always knew she wanted to pursue a career in the ski industry from a young age, having first clicked into skis at the age of 4 and writing her 8th grade career project on being a professional skier. While her dreams of becoming a professional athlete didn’t quite pan out the way she planned at […]
