During the summer, the Field Academy runs multi-week travel program for students ages 15-18. Each year this trip takes place in a different area of the United States and students have the opportunity to study a critical issue in that region. Learn more here!

CENTRAL APPALACHIA EXPEDITION

Climate Change, Economics, and Community Leadership: Central Appalachia

Locations: NC, VA, WV, TN, KY

What are the experiences of people that lead them to work for change?What are people/communities doing that makes them hopeful? How is crisis connected to change? How do local struggles and solutions connect to both crisis and opportunity in global systems?

Trip Summary:

This summer’s program will focus on learning about the history and roots of environmental justice movements in Central Appalachia. We’ll do this by hearing perspectives from miners and union organizers, environmentalists and company executives, community activists and politicians, as well as by sharing meals, stories, and homes with people throughout the region. We will learn about the diverse cultural backgrounds of Appalachian communities, the challenges or struggles they may face, and community-based responses, solutions and activism.

Throughout this program, we will learn from and connect the dots between climate change activism, indigenous rights and racial justice movements, and workers’ rights struggles. We will reflect on the ways in which what we learn about in Appalachia is connected to each of our own communities at home.

SOUTHWEST EXPEDITION

"Survival and Resilience"

Locations: NM, CO, & AZ

What is survival? What strategies do plants, animals, people, and cultures use to survive in challenging environments? What makes something able to adapt to change?

Academic Courses Include

U.S. History, Natural Science, Citizenship & Leadership

Trip Summary

Explore the Four Corners region of the United States and learn about desert ecology and how plants and animals adapt to limited water. Discover the historical and present ways in which people built resilience to thrive in the environments around them. Use those understandings to learn about the current water crisis and its relationship to global climate change. Be inspired by incredible individuals and organizations who are taking action and coming up with innovative and creative solutions!