Ready to Learn Outside the Box? Ready to Live Outside the Box?
When searching for the right fit in a college program potential students can be uncertain about their future direction. Current emphasis in higher education is often still responding to the idea that a degree is solely about preparing for a specific job. However, it is common now for people to change jobs, and even careers, multiple times. Yet many high school graduates have no idea of the vast range of potential work opportunities that are out there, nor do they have a sense of the characteristics of the work environs or skills and aptitudes that define the positions for which they are preparing. EEI education can open doors you didn’t even know existed and readies you to go through them.
An EEI Gap Year exposes participants to diverse opportunities and offers a chance to talk with people who are doing the work on the ground and maybe even lend them a hand. An EEI semester – or year – can help you clarify who you are and what you are passionate about bringing to the world, while making new friends, living in close relationship to the natural world, learning how to act in support of your beliefs, and having fun!
So much of what is learned through the bus educational model are crucial and broadly useful 21st Century skills. Four agreed upon critical areas for development for the 21st century are collaboration and teamwork, creativity and imagination, critical thinking, and problem solving. Our alumni gained these and so many more skills that allowed them to find their way into a huge diversity of jobs and careers. We’ve gathered together just some of the fields that AEI/EEI alums are working in. Many would say that their time on the bus was formative in terms of who they have become and what they do.
AEI/EEI Alumni Acting for Change in:
Agriculture
Co-owner of Big B’s Juices, Hard Cider, and Delicious Orchards
Co-owner San Juan and Blue Range Ranch; designed and helped launch the New Agrarian apprenticeship program
Owner/manager Full Season Farm Vermont
Co-owner and operator of Open Hands Farm Community Supported Agriculture in Minnesota
Artists
Media Director, The Carbon Underground
Potter
Performance Artist, Artistic director Free Land Project
Board Members & Fundraisers
Senior Program Officer, Lerner Foundation
Woodard & Curran Foundation
Families
Owner/Partner, Speaker, Writer at Mind Positive Parenting
Owner, Boston Nanny Centre
Fiction and non-fiction Writing
Nature writer
Freelance journalist
Journalist at Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Field biologists
Estuary and Ocean Science Center San Francisco State University
Director of Bird Ecology, Schoodic Institute
Health and Healing
Halls Pond Healing Arts
Registered Nurse
Massage Therapist
Birth Doula/Reiki Practitioner, Sacred Song Health & Wellness
Nurse Practitioner
Counselor at Anchorage Women’s Clinic
Occupational Therapist
Industry and Corporate Structures
Road Transportation Safety Manager, Shell
Law
Environmental Lawyer
Naturalists, Environmental Educators, & Park Rangers and other park work
National Park Service Supervisory Ranger
Interpreter for Charleston County Parks
Chief Planner, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
Volunteer and Youth Program Coordinator, Valley Forge National Historic Park
Naturalist Programs Coordinator at Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board
Rangeland Management Specialist with the USFS
Land Use Planner with Garfield County, CO
Not for Profits, Leadership and Management
Volunteer Coordinator, Furniture Friends
Director of Professional Development, Shelburne Farms
Chewonki Foundation
Student Leadership Campaign Coordinator, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Director of Education at Save the Bay Center RI
Project Manager, The Trust for Public Lands
Program Coordinator, Vaughan Woods and Historic Homestead
Wagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia
Executive Director, Smokey House Center
Outdoor and Environmental/Sustainability Education
Program Director, GirlVentures
Program Director, The Park School
Outward Bound Canada
Outward Bound USA
The Students on Ice Foundation
Co-Founder of Natured — Education & Sustainability Consultancy
Public/Private School Change Agents
Teacher Alexander Muss High School, (Israel)
Lead Teacher, Cobscook Experiential Program
3rd Grade Teacher, Durham Community School, ME
4th Grade Teacher, Milford School District, DE
Founder(s) and Head of School, Montessori
Elementary Lead Guide, Montessori School of Winston Salem
High School Science Teacher
High School Math Teacher
Waldorf Class Teacher
Director of Programs, Wayfinders Schools
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and Environmental Conservation Coordinators
Public Engagement and Restoration Manager at Natural Areas Conservancy NYC
Green Team Coordinator at Unifier Festival, MA
Sustainability Coordinator & Adjunct Faculty at University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point
Community Energy and Climate Action Coordinator/AmeriCorps Member at Vermont Natural Resources Council
Recycling Outreach Coordinator for GrowNYC
School/Business Founders – Entrepreneurs in Education
Chief Exploration Officer, To Walk your Talk Travel
Center for Insight and Change
Executive Director, Cobscook Community Learning Center
Founder and Executive Director Trekkers, Inc.
Owner Coaching and Consulting Business
Founder and Director of Express Fluency language study
Study Abroad Programs
Program Director at Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs
Founder & Executive Director, Taproot Farm & Environmental Education Center
University/College Staff and Faculty
University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
Program Director, Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs
Faculty & Staff, Lesley University
Associate Director and Academic Advisor Department of Global Studies and Modern Languages, Drexel University
Faculty, Goddard College
University Sustainability Coordinators
This is, of course, just a sampling of the wide and varied careers bus alumni have pursued over the years. EEI education can clearly be applicable to whatever you choose to do!
