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 […]
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, […]
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? […]
We’ve wrapped up an incredible three days with student teams launching 7 different social venture starts up in just under 60 hours. Modules on ideation, lean canvas methodology, customer discovery, rapid prototyping, and pitching — with lots of feedback and mentorship thrown in — guided the development of each concept into polished and professional pitch […]
Greetings from Hanover. We’ve been busy. Orientation; a full day at the Dartmouth Ropes Course; workshops on sustainability, economics, and entrepreneurship; guest speakers; and tonight half the group went to King Arthur Flour for a pizza baking class while they other half went canoeing. Tomorrow, the evening activities will be reversed and we will, of […]
Greetings from a still unseasonably hot NYC. We shuffled some things around with the program agenda due to the relentless heat for the past five or so days, but spirits are still high as we round the corner into our final full day of the program. Tomorrow, we’ll have our design challenge presentations in the […]
What have we been up to for the past 48 hours or so? Thursday morning started with a bit of serendipity as we awoke to rumbles of thunder and some heavy rain, a perfect start to a day focused on NYC’s water infrastructure. Where does all of that rainfall go? Let’s find out. Skies had […]
We’re about to wrap up our third full day in Brooklyn. Here is a brief summary of what we’ve been up to and a bunch of photos: We kicked things off on Day 1 with a keynote address from Pete Dominick, radio host, CNN commentator, and standup comedian. Morning of Day 2 took us up […]
Greetings from Brooklyn. We’re getting fired up for the start of our Brooklyn: Urban Environmental Systems program. We (Cathy, Joanna, Jenny, and Jeff) have been busy for the last few days getting ready for everyone arriving tomorrow. We have so many fun and interesting things planned for the next two weeks. Can’t wait to meet […]
I’ve been looking for an excuse to #deletefacebook since day 1 of Sustainable Summer as an organization. Conventional wisdom among marketers is that Facebook is an essential platform for customer acquisition. As an organization that works with the high school demographic, this is perhaps doubly true for us. So, begrudgingly, one of the first things […]