Charity Profile: Learning about Change is Simple with Janelle Rolke
July 17, 2025
We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Janelle Rolke of Change is Simple as we continue to learn more through our 2025 charitable initiative to support the organization. Change is Simple (CiS) is an environmental education nonprofit that brings dynamic, STEM-based sustainability and climate education to nearly 8,000 elementary and middle school students in the greater Boston area annually. CiS empowers students to combat the climate crisis by connecting daily decisions—such as the food they eat, energy they use, and products they buy—with their local and global environmental impacts. Students examine the intersection of the natural and human-made worlds while discovering their ability to create change at home, in school, and within their communities.
With a mission that is up to a mighty big task, we wanted to learn more about how they go about implementing and assessing such successful programming. Janelle was kind enough to share more about the organization in the interview below. We hope you enjoy learning more as well, and recommend learning more at www.changeissimple.org as well:
We are so glad to have connected with Change is Simple (“CIS”)! Tell me a little bit about how you came to your role.
I have a degree in Natural Resource Management, but it wasn’t until 15+ years after graduating that I was able to pursue that passion. Luckily, my previous experience working for a municipality and organizing community events led me to my role as Outreach & Development Manager at Change is Simple working with our dedicated board members, donors, corporate sponsors, grants team, education team, and our amazing school partners.
What I love most is seeing our lessons in action! Each educator has incredible expertise ranging from sustainable agriculture, environmental conservation, elementary education, and environmental economics. Students are captivated by the hands-on lessons, and they are left with motivation to make a positive difference. Climate education can feel negative and overwhelming, but our lessons are crafted to provide tangible solutions to students and allow them to feel empowered.
Our team was so drawn to the hands-on aspects of your mission as well, and the activities seem to cover many important topics. In your own words, what is Change is Simple all about?
Change is Simple (CiS) is an environmental education nonprofit that brings dynamic, STEM-based sustainability and climate education to nearly 8,000 elementary and middle school students in the greater Boston area annually. Our goal is to empower students to combat the climate crisis by connecting daily decisions—such as the food they eat, energy they use, and products they buy—with their local and global environmental impacts. Students examine the intersection of the natural and human-made worlds while discovering their ability to create change at home, in school, and within their communities.
How does your organization make complex environmental issues “simple” for young students to understand and engage with?
Multi-year programming builds upon foundational knowledge year over year. In kindergarten, we start with the basics: What is the environment? What is a habitat? Then, each consecutive year builds upon the previous. Students learn the ways that humans can impact animal habitats in first grade, importance of animals such as pollinators for human health in second grade, and so on. By the time a student finishes the program, they have a solid understanding of the world around them, from the worms beneath their feet to how the global food system is impacted by their choices at the grocery store. Core to all CiS lessons is hope. By making the lessons that we teach hopeful – by telling students how they can indeed make a difference – we instill a sense of agency, a sense that a really complex problem can be tackled, step by step, even by children.
It seems like a big tenant of the organization is making the various programs accessible. How have you woven in inclusive learning throughout the culture?
Accessibility is a huge aspect of the work we do. For example, since Covid, we’ve noticed larger gaps between where students are academically and where learning standards say they should be. We believe that it’s part of our job to help close this gap, whether that’s by creating more visual aids to go along with our written materials to support varying literacy levels or developing alternative math problems for students who may thrive with an extra challenge or extra support. This is another way we build their confidence and empower their academic journey.
We continue to make language access a main priority as well, and our education team is passionate about reaching every student, regardless of what language they might speak.
From the learner’s perspective, what do students seem to find most rewarding from their experience in Change is Simple programming?
A typical in class experience will fit seamlessly into year-long curriculum plans. Within these customized experiences we ask ourselves, “what hopeful messaging around sustainable living can we leave these kids with?”. We have found that the depth of understanding as a result of the customized lessons has been most rewarding for our students (though they may not use those exact words!)
We can see their excitement in understanding complete concepts as they recall the puppets that told them stories, the water table they poured pollutants into and the starry night tent they get to experience from the perspective of turtles finding their way home. We are always impressed to hear students share comments like, “We learned about using less plastic to protect Piper (the sandpiper) and her home” … or … “We held worms and learned they make the soil so our food can grow”. Every lesson ends with a youth-led brainstorm detailing the role they can play in the solution to the topic they just learned about. And, of course you’ll know that the lessons are wrapped when you are walking the halls and hear unanimous “Change is Simple” chants from every corner of the school – a tradition all the students love.
Why is environmental education so crucial at the elementary and middle school levels? Does this, or should this, compete with the basic academic skills learned at these ages or can it be concurrent?
Exposing students to STEM subjects early on equips them with critical life skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork. The world needs students who see themselves as innovators and agents of change to solve the environmental problems facing the next chapter of our society.
High-quality STEM programming provides the skills to understand and address local environmental issues, such as flooding, extreme heat, and severe storms. Most academic skills such as reading, writing, and social studies can certainly run concurrently with the problem-solving nature of STEM programming. Concurrent academic plans are especially important to CiS while we aim to ease the workload of our school partners. We spend a great deal of time ensuring that our plans work within school academic standards and schedules.
How do you measure the success or long-term impact of your programs on students and communities?
We have a robust evaluation program both internally and in collaboration with third-party researchers. Between 2019 and 2022, external researchers Dr. Sara and William Ewell of the Evaluation Institute conducted a full program evaluation, finding that after Change is Simple, students scored 85% higher in environmental science knowledge and showed a 90% engagement rate during lessons, with 100% of lesson time observed as active learning. CiS also improved their core learning skills in areas such as language arts and math.
Furthermore, Alumni credited the program with sparking interest in STEM and sustainability-related careers. One participant shared, “It opened the doorway for me to know how to protect the Earth and minimize my impact.” Others emphasized that CiS provided knowledge that would be otherwise unavailable at home or school, enabling them to teach their families about recycling, reducing waste, and conserving resources. Many alumni described the program as “planting seeds” that grew into informed decision-making and lifelong advocacy.
Finally, how can people get involved whether they’re educators, donors, or community members, to support your mission? What’s the best way to get in touch?
In addition to classroom education, we also offer Professional Development and curriculum development. Our team also attends local community events with our Sustainability & Climate Innovation Learning Lab, SCiLL. This allows us to extend our programming to people of all ages!
If you are interested in supporting our work, we invite you to help us empower more kids to become climate leaders! You can volunteer with us, sponsor a student, classroom, or an entire school for a full school year. Please make a gift here or contact me directly via email at Janelle@changeissimple.org. It is my honor to connect with others who share this passion