Summer break, but no pause in learning
Exeter’s Global Initiatives program has long set the Academy apart in giving students opportunity to explore our world and put their critical thinking and cultural competencies to use. This summer, Exeter is wasting no time getting back on the road, with the first of six experiential learning trips starting June 4.
PEA faculty will lead dozens of our students on trips as near as Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and as far as an archaeological dig in central Italy.
Here are brief descriptions of the planned trips:
Conserving Pollinators
More than three-quarters of the world’s crops depend on pollinators. These animals provide essential ecosystem services and play a crucial role in the production of many fruits and vegetables. But a changing climate, pesticide use and habitat loss or degradation threaten pollinator communities. Through the observation, collection and identification of local pollinators in Costa Rica, students will help gather data critical to understanding the impacts of these threats to this fragile but vital ecosystem.
Environmental Stewardship
Vermont is a place of deep connection to the rhythms of the natural world, a place of close communities living close to the land. Using Quimby Country Cottages in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom as HQ, students will explore and live the idea of stewardship through the contexts of recreation and adventure, community and food, and the arts and sciences. Participants emerge with a deep sense of place and a template for engaging their own homes in ways that offer mutual flourishing to human and nonhuman communities.
Introductory Biology
Students gain first-hand experience with the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as it relates to their spring term Introductory Biology curriculum. The week will be spent making day trips into Yellowstone National Park and working with instructors from Yellowstone Forever Institute on topics that include wolf reintroduction, grizzly bear conservation, and the Bison/Brucellosis dynamic.
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ESSO Service
Students take part in a hands-on service project while learning about New Orleans culture and the lasting effects of Hurricane Katrina on its infrastructure. This trip focuses on helping to rebuild homes, replant gardens, resurrect community parks and contribute to neighborhood revitalization projects. Students will also meet homeowners and community members who were negatively impacted by the devastating 2005 hurricane.
Classical Archaeology
June 17-July 11
To really engage with the ancient past, students need to get their hands dirty. Archaeology can answer important questions that literature cannot, especially about the habits and beliefs of non-elite Greeks and Romans as seen by the artifacts and buildings they left behind. PEA students will join The Gabii Project, a dig in what was a renowned city during Roman times and where, legend holds, Rome’s mythical founder, Romulus, and his brother, Remus, were educated.
Social Entrepreneurship
After 70 years of dramatic change, Berlin offers an incredible range of activities for all interests. Students will converse with Berlin business owners and customers in various fields while exploring downtown neighborhoods. They will live and take classes at CIEE Berlin Global Institute. Using startup-friendly Berlin as their classroom, students will learn to leverage their business skills to create sustainable solutions to community challenges in this social entrepreneurship course. During the first half of the program, students learn how to develop and pitch a business. During the second half of the program, students will use the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for discussing various challenges facing Berlin.