There’s a good chance one of the most hopeful stories of the year flew under your radar.

With the Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement, the University of California, San Diego became the first major public university in the country to establish a climate change course requirement. That means approximately 7,000 students will gain exposure to climate and environmental topics, allowing them to build climate literacy in their time on campus.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it gets better.

The 40 classes that fulfill the course requirement cover a wide range of topics, making it possible for each student to see how climate plugs into their field of study. Imagine getting credit for taking “The Astronomy of Climate Change,” “Environmentalism in Arts and Media,” or “Gender and Climate Justice.”

We can all agree that this is just as cool as it is monumental.

The climate crisis is happening now, and we need a climate-literate workforce to have the best possible shot at addressing it. As it stands, only a little over 50% of Americans view climate change as a major threat, and only a third consider it the nation’s top priority.

Of course, those numbers are higher for younger generations, with a third of both Gen Zers and millennials taking action to address climate change in their own lives. This should come as no surprise—youth have been at the forefront of the climate movement for years, from leading divestment and disassociation efforts to strongly showing their support for a fossil-free future.

This requirement not only recognizes the role they have played in the climate movement, but acknowledges climate change as a fundamentally intersectional issue that affects all sectors of life. We’ll need all hands on deck to do something about it, regardless of expertise or career path.

And universities—where students can learn and escape the echo chambers and misinformation that have become so prevalent on social media—have a critical role to play in helping students find their role in the movement.

So, let’s keep the momentum going and encourage the country’s most prominent institutions to step up to the plate. The sooner they follow UCSD’s historic example, the brighter the future ahead will be for all of us.

Let’s keep making history!