CRAFTSBURY COMMON, Vt. — As the world grapples with extended and varied eco-social emergencies, Sterling College is inviting learners of all ages and backgrounds to participate in EcoGather, their collaborative learning network dedicated to the vitality of ecosystems, communities, and economies.
EcoGather is a grant-funded program that aims to create a global educational community to help people and their communities become more resilient in the face of the climate crisis. Tuition for the college-level EcoGather courses is primarily underwritten by donors and students are asked to make a modest financial commitment that is typically less than 10% of the value of the course. Two foundational courses designed to improve our individual and collective resilience are now open for registration, with no prerequisites:
In Food Systems Thinking, students will explore the ways in which we plan for, produce, process, exchange, share and waste or valorize food by employing a systems-thinking framework to analyze the patterns and relationships that govern the food systems landscape. Students will be equipped to engage critically with their own assumptions, ethics, and ways of seeing, and contribute what they know to global and local efforts to build better, more pleasurable, and more humane food systems.
“Food Systems Thinking is ideal for lifelong learners who crave the essential knowledge about the food system yet may not have the capacity to pursue traditional higher education,” says Mackenzie Faber, who is facilitating the course at Sterling. “For those seeking equitable transformation, for those looking for human connection and community through food, Food Systems Thinking provides a comprehensive foundation.”
The self-paced online course consists of 26 lessons in 5 distinct modules and tuition for the entire course is $299.
Climate + Change aims to illuminate the dark cloud in our minds, called climate breakdown, by equipping learners with the scientific knowledge, emotional clarity, and practical know-how to contribute to timely transformative systemic change in all aspects of society. The present climate and ecological emergencies can no longer be ignored and students will understand what psychological barriers to action they may have been using to cope with the feelings that the climate emergency brings up, and how to process and overcome them. Learners will gain the knowledge and skills to understand the science of climate change and move together toward solutions to combat our greatest existential threat.
Climate + Change is led by Dr. Heather Short, who holds a PhD in Earth Sciences and has been teaching college and university students for 25 years. In 2021, she resigned from a tenured teaching post in Canada to focus on educating adults about the urgency of the present climate and ecological emergencies. The self-paced online course consists of 14 modules and tuition is offered on a sliding scale from $49 – $199.
Both courses use a variety of modalities to facilitate student learning, including recorded, place-based lectures, readings, journals, interviews, and discussions. Curriculum details and registration information are available at https://www.ce.
About EcoGather:
Sterling College’s EcoGather is a collaborative learning network dedicated to the vitality of ecosystems, communities, and economies. It brings remote learning to life by grounding its offerings in community-centered design, place-based pedagogy, and experiential application. For more information, visit: ecogather.sterlingcollege.edu
ABOUT STERLING COLLEGE:
Founded in 1958 in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, Sterling College advances ecological thinking and action through affordable experiential learning, preparing knowledgeable, skilled, and responsible leaders to face the ecological crises caused by unlimited growth and consumption that threatens the future of the planet. Sterling College is home to the School of the New American Farmstead, the Wendell Berry Farming Program, and EcoGather; is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education; and is one of only nine colleges and universities recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a “Work College.” Sterling acknowledges that the land on which it gathers is the traditional and unceded territory of the Abenaki people on its Vermont campus, and the Shawnee, Osage, and the Eastern band of the Cherokee on its Kentucky campus. For more information, visit: www.sterlingcollege.edu
–Sterling College