Elon University
AC-5: Immersive Experience

The Periclean Scholars Program is a 3 year program for selected students. Led by their faculty mentor, each cohort of Periclean Scholars takes classes together and determines global problems that they choose to study and address. Work on these problems is from a sustainability perspective and the Class has to make a difference by designing a project to address the problem. Projects typically involve significant fundraising with students traveling abroad to implement their project, typically in the capstone course they take senior year. An example is the Periclean Scholars Class of 2013 whose project involved working with immigrants from Chiapas, Mexico and establishing the Hogares Sanos program in Burlington, NC that is now a project of the Class of 2016. http://www.elon.edu/e-web/academics/special_programs/project_pericles/scholars.xhtml Other examples of immersive experiences that focus on sustainability are semester and summer study abroad programs including Australia: University of the Sunshine Coast; Australia: Curtin University; Australia: Tropical Rainforest Studies (SFS); Bhutan: Eastern Himalayan Forests & Rural Livelihoods (SFS); Costa Rica: Sustainable Development Studies; Denmark: DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad); Kenya & Tanzania (SFS); Panama: Tropical Island Biodiversity and Conservation Studies; New Zealand, Dunedin: University of Otago (Arcadia); Scotland, St. Andrews: University of St. Andrews; Semester at Sea; South Africa, Kruger National Park: African Ecology & Conservation (OTS); South Africa-Stellenbosch: Sustainability & Community (CIEE) and Turks and Caicos: Marine Protected Areas (SFS). Examples of short-term study abroad courses with a sustainability focus, include Costa Rica: Language, Culture, and Ecotourism; Australia: Ecotourism in Australia; Adventure Based Eco-Tourism in New Zealand; Costa Rica Jungle: Community, Conservation, Service; Belize/Peru: Field Biology and Peru: Sustainable Development: Microfinance and Agriculture - Winter (Embedded). http://www.elon.edu/e-web/academics/international_studies/studyabroad/programs.xhtml The University also offers a 5-day summer orientation program framed around sustainability. The program, Thrive, is open to about 20 self-selected incoming first-year students. Each day, students explore campus and community resources and examine how some of our basic needs like food, water and more equitable communities are met while living at Elon. Activities may include discussions, a hike at a nearby nature preserve, a service learning project or tour of a water treatment facility. Thrive helps students become familiar with their new home and provides tools for choosing to live more sustainably. http://www.elon.edu/e-web/students/new-student-transition-program/fse.xhtml