Dear Expedition Education Supporters:
Our vision is to create a sustainable, flourishing program that provides transformative education to a new generation of students and helps them become leaders in the movement to create a just, ecologically healthy, and compassionate world.
We are making this vision more of a reality than ever! Our Extreme Energy Immersion for Student Climate Leaders was an incredible success in many ways. We were able to bring 15 young leaders and three faculty into the field for ten days of transformative experiential education.
Sean Smith, sitting up front, returned to his home campus where he successfully led a divestment campaign.
Several participants volunteered that the 10-day Immersion was the most powerful educational experience they have had. In response to our asking what she was taking back home, one participant said, “I’m taking back the stories of the people who live without clean water and also an emotional drive to fight for mother nature, and to fight for our future.”
Since running the Immersion in the fall of 2013, we have established an exciting partnership with Marlboro College in Vermont. Via this partnership, we are now offering the full semester program; we are currently running our first full semester. The small (6 students, 2 faculty, and a faculty intern) and enthusiastic learning community began in VT on the Marlboro College campus, headed to the Adirondacks for a week in the backcountry, and then moved down through NY and PA to WV, visiting with excellent individuals and organizations involved in energy and climate issues, ending the first half camped with Alex Naar (Trailside alum) just south of DC on the Potomac River. This semester, with a theme of Energy and Climate Justice, is following and expanding on the route taken by the Immersion students. The second half will take place in the southeast and on the Gulf Coast.
We are so excited and filled with joy to be offering this transformative education again and looking forward to its growth.
Your support today will make an important difference. We are extremely frugal in our operations. We are particularly looking for support for our scholarship fund in order that it not be tied to tuition income and therefore also independent of the number of participants. The support of our faithful and generous donors will make it possible for us to continue offering programming and to be able to make it available to more students in the future. Please consider continuing your support of expedition education by donating here today.
The expedition model of education has been a leader in transformative experiential teaching and learning for over 40 years beginning with the Trailside Country School, evolving into the Audubon Expedition Institute in partnership with Lesley University, and now re-emerging as the Expedition Education Institute (EEI) at the non-profit EcoEducation Initiatives.
We look forward to continuing to connect with you, in community and for a more sustainable and resilient future.
Consider giving a gift today and join our community of support for the shift to a more life-sustaining society and world!
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More about EEI:
The EEI model supports students to develop capacities and build confidence in their articulation, expression, and creativity, as well as their leadership and group process abilities. Students and faculty live and learn together, traveling in a custom retrofitted school bus, eating, sleeping, and studying outdoors while exploring the local and global environmental challenges that communities and ecosystems are facing. During their travels, the community examines and learns about the myriad sustainable solutions that represent the “blessed unrest.” They come to know the bioregion, ecologically, culturally, and socio-politically; and come to know themselves on a deeper level, individually and as part of a rich learning community.
We create experiential learning communities that inspire informed
and compassionate ecological leadership.