Caption: The author lounging outside our residence hall at Dartmouth during one of the few quiet moments of the summer. One of my earliest permaculture instructors, Javier Carrera, thought relaxing in a hammock was the epitome of luxury. I have spent a great deal of time over the past four months rebuilding the Sustainable Summer… Read More
Well, it’s that time. Students are exchanging tear-filled farewells after two incredible weeks living and learning together. An intense “3-day Start Up” culminated with pitches on Thursday evening. Our eight teams worked hard to shape an initial idea into a minimum viable product with a “go to market” strategy. In no particular order, we had… Read More
Two action-packed weeks have come to a close. The last 72 hours included a visit to the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment facility, Kingsland Wildflowers, a walking tour of the financial district, the Billion Oyster Project, and lots of time dedicated towards our design challenge. The program concluded with some classic NYC experiences – Broadway (Phantom… Read More
We’ve been staying busy in Brooklyn (and Manhattan) with our time split between site visits, project ideation, and workshops. Friday began with a session on design thinking methodology followed by a visit to Higgins Hall, the site of our design challenge. Students took some initial measurements to understand the volume of stormwater runoff from the… Read More
Greetings from NYC where we have had a busy four days! We kicked off our session on urban sustainability with a visit to the SIMS recycling facility in Sunset Park followed by lunch at the Industry City food hall just down the street. Then it was time for our sustainability scavenger hunt, with teams solving… Read More
Greetings Earthlings! We are so excited to meet you on July 14! It is going to be an incredible two weeks and we hope you are all getting ready to have a super fun, adventurous, and inspirational time at Dartmouth. We’ll be canoeing on the Connecticut River, engaging in meaningful discussion and workshops, and learning… Read More
Counting down the hours until we welcome our 2019 Brooklyn cohort. It is going to be an awesome two weeks and we hope you all are getting ready to have a super fun, interesting, and engaging time in the greatest city on earth (I”m biased)! We’ll be kayaking in the Hudson harbor, exploring NYC’s renowned… Read More
The pre-college field is about three decades old. It has matured, more or less, alongside other services that developed largely as a consequence of the growing competitiveness of college admissions. There was a time, not too long ago, when applying to college was a pretty straightforward process. Taking the SAT was something you simply showed… Read More
How to Choose a Summer Abroad Program There are a lot of summer abroad programs for high school students. Teens have never had as many options for a summer abroad experience. From one-week service-oriented programs to months-long cultural immersion experiences, there are literally thousands of different possibilities. Just for teens. In the summer. Abroad. So,… Read More
WAITING FOR THE POLITICIANS TO SAVE US FROM OURSELVES For years we’ve asked our students to read Michael Pollan’s Why Bother. First published 10 years ago, it is approaching canonical status in the environmental studies field. Many of our students have read it before, but it bears re-reading. I do it annually, at least. Why?… Read More
