AUDUBON EXPEDITION INSTITUTE

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES SUMMER PROGRAM

June 1-22, 2009

To apply:

Please fill out the Sustainable Practices Summer Program Application [pdf]. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please note that your essay responses will be used to evaluate admittance as well as for consideration for scholarship funding. A listing of private scholarship opportunities is available on Lesley's Financial Aid website. For questions about the application process, email aei@lesley.edu.

Courses:

• AENSC 2200 Exploring Ecologically Sustainable Practices (3 Social Science credits)
  Students will explore sustainable practices and how they relate to their individual lives, to the greater society, and ecological systems. Direct experience will be the foundation of the study while visits with people practicing sustainable lifestyles and literature investigation will enhance the practice. Students will concentrate on more ecologically sound solutions within the following systems: personal transportation, residential building, water supply, wastewater management, and small-scale agriculture. They will be in a rural environment, however will also explore how these concepts can be applied in urban and suburban settings.
• AESSC 3300 The Practice of Developing a Voluntary Simplicity Ethic (3 Science credits)
  Students will examine the concept of voluntary simplicity as a cultural movement and personal opportunity. The learning community will grow and cook nutritious organic food, use sustainable technologies, live out of doors, and develop a relationship with the land. Through writing, discussions, and work interactions, they will develop their understanding of a Voluntary Simplicity Ethic. They will also explore their roles as consumers and members of the natural community as well as investigate the concept of “Ecological Footprint”.

This three week program is an integrated curriculum. Both courses must be taken simultaneously.

Program Setting:

The summer courses will be based at Ravenwood Collective in Searsmont, Maine. Ravenwood is home to a collective of people affiliated with AEI, a diversity of plants and animals, five acres of fields, a riparian corridor and mixed deciduous and coniferous forests. We share the land with 124 species (at last count) of resident and non-resident birds, a family of beaver, coyotes, mink, bobcat, and a variety of frogs, snakes, salamanders, and turtles.

The five members, three of which work for A.E.I., jointly own and steward the 156 acres of land that make up Ravenwood. They make decisions using consensus and have a strong dedication to the land where they reside. A key component of Ravenwood's mission is to utilize their land to do outreach through education. The summer courses you will be a part of are a manifestation of that aspiration.

Intentions and Daily Simple Living:

During the summer program there will be two overarching themes: Voluntary Simplicity and Sustainable Practices. You will realize a sense of place in yourself and with others while experimenting how to live a more sustainable life. We will all be challenged to practice sustainable living skills and explore our ethics in relation to how our on-the-ground practice matches up with our intellectual intentions.

Program Structure:

The summer program is comprised of a 21-day field component and a non-field component of two weeks.

1) The field component is made up of all the experiences, work projects, discussions, presentations, and community living that we do together in the field. There is a strong focus on building a close-knit learning community. The field component's 24/7 retreat style nature helps to nurture this aspect. We eat all meals together and are living and learning all of the time. Each day begins with a morning meeting. On some of the days the faculty will give an interactive talk about a related topic, but most of the learning occurs informally through projects and personal exploration and question asking.

During the majority of the day we are engaged in hands-on projects related to sustainable practices and securing our daily living needs such as hand-pumping our water; cutting firewood; cooking our delicious meals; and caring for the garden and chickens.

In addition to the cognitive and emotional challenges, be prepared to engage in experiential projects. Some of these projects may include: completing the construction of a second gray-water system; continuing to work on the straw-bale solar building; building a water collection cistern for your source of kitchen water; maintaining a composting system; creating a new garden plot; attempting to correct some erosion problems; and collecting waste vegetable oil to be processed for use in a diesel vehicle. All of our learning happens in the context of getting to know one another well and having fun while living together.

At the end of the day we have conversations, produce our own music, or go for walks together.

2) The non-field component consists of reading and writing projects one-week before and one-week following the field component. These times may vary depending on the rate at which you read and write. By concentrating the reading and writing into non-field time, we can more fully immerse ourselves within the experiential nature of the field component.

Sustainable Practices Skills and Inquiry Topics:

• Measuring our environmental footprint--in theory and practice
• Alternative fuels for vehicles
• Composting and the basics of biologically active soil
• Agricultural seed diversity
• Gray-water systems
• Hand-grinding grain to make bread
• Basic carpentry skills
• Communication with resolve
• Passive solar design
• Sustainable agriculture
• The perils of industrial agriculture
• Simple living skills
• Cooking a nutritious diet
• Baking in an outdoor wood oven
• Straw-bale building techniques
• Collaborative learning

Housing and Food:

Students sleep outside in a tent every night, use a composting toilet and take solar heated showers. We shop for food at a local food coop and utilize some food that is stored over the winter from the last season's crops. All meals are prepared by the student group.

Don't worry if you have never camped in a tent or if Ravenwood will be your first exposure to growing food, building projects, or holding chickens. Our tents will keep you dry and keep the bugs at bay. This program is meant to provide a nurturing experience for beginners and for people who have experience with these skills. We will all teach and learn from one another in our quest to become more sustainable citizens on the planet.

Costs:

For information on tuition and fees, please email aei@lesley.edu

For more information:

Paige Manning
Assistant Director Advising and Student Services
Audubon Expedition Institute at Lesley University
pmanning@lesley.edu
1-800-999-1959 ext 8489

Additional photos of the summer program are available in our photo gallery. Click here to read reflections and stories from past Ravenwood participants.