From the BBA Website - Mountain Campus Description
The central theme of our semester, was “How do we live well in this place?” (1) We looked at this questions through many points of view: • the social, political, economic and environmental issues affecting our local area • how artists and writers have been inspired by these issues and how they have addressed these issues in their work; • different forest communities that exist on and around the campus and the ecological factors that influence them; • uses of land in the area and the resulting impact on wildlife, he forest, and the community • the ways people can care for a community and affect positive change. |
Experiential Learning at Mountain CampusMountain Campus is a one semester program at my high school. I attended in the Fall of my sophomore year. At Mountain, a small group of students are chosen to engage in a semester-long study of the surrounding landscape and community—its past, present, and potential for the future.
My Mountain Campus semester included 23 other students in 10th, 11th and 12th grade. We studied, Nature and Writing, Economics, the Environment and Social Change, and Forest Ecology and Systems, and Leadership for Positive Change. Our grades for the semester were all Pass/Fail. Mountain Campus is where I learned that I am an experiential learner! I love studying biology while dressed in waders and standing in a stream. Mountain Campus taught me to get out of my comfort zone and to take risks. The class was small, and I could not hide. I was required to write and then read my writing out loud in front of my peers. I have always been anxious about others judging me, so receiving feedback from my peers was challenging. Still, I grew so much from taking the chance. I also had to be an active member of a community. If we didn't cook, we didn't eat. If we didn't chop wood, we had no fire to stay warm. We also helped the local community by picking their crops, delivering firewood, and caring for their homes.
The best part about Mountain Campus was that I began to see the connection between being outside, active, in nature, and how I felt about myself and the world. On our last hike, we had to do "solos." We camped by ourselves for two days and nights. There was something magical and genuinely frightening about being alone in the woods. It was so cold! My boots had frozen solid in the morning, so I had to hike out in my camp shoes. My experience at Mountain Campus also taught me that I learn more easily when I can physically apply what I have learned. I enjoyed being outside studying in Green Mountain's living classroom and not just reading about watersheds in a book. |
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Vermont State Song: (We sang this almost everyday!)
Green hills and silver waters Are my home - They belong to me And all my sons and daughters May they be strong and forever free Let us live to protect her beauty And look with pride on the golden dome They say home is where the heart is These green mountains are my home These greem mountains are my home |
