Hobart and William Smith Colleges
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Hobart and William Smith Colleges offer a number of sustainability-focused immersive experiences, both on and off-campus. Annually, HWS Global Education offers study abroad in Australia. The Queensland program is based at the University of Queensland, Australia’s largest university, and is organized in coordination with the School of Biological Sciences. Integrating field and lecture components, the program focuses on the marine and terrestrial ecology of eastern Australia and includes extended excursions that highlight the variety of ecosystems found in the region. All students in the program must complete a series of courses, including “Australian Culture, Society, and Contemporary Issues” and “Sustenance and Sustainability.” The Australia study abroad program also features a rigorous schedule of multi-day excursions to conduct fieldwork at four different ecological sites in Australia. Study abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, offers a wide range of courses, but the program is of particular interest to those students studying biology and environmental science, architecture, psychology, social sciences, and those involved in the HWS education program. Students can select courses from the environmental studies, marine biology, international business and economics, media studies, social sciences, arts and humanities, religious studies, and education and child development. The Colleges also offer the Environmental Studies Summer Youth Institute (ESSYI) every summer. ESSYI is a two-week, college-level interdisciplinary program for talented high-school students entering their junior and senior years. The program is designed as an introduction to a variety of environmental issues and provides students with an understanding of the different perspectives and disciplines from which a person can explore the environment and environmental issues. The program includes working in the field, laboratories, teaching in classroom settings, a four-day camping trip, and the opportunity to explore a range of topics in sustainability, including environmental policy, economics, and ethics. http://essyi.hws.edu/ Since spring 2012, the Finger Lakes Institute has coordinated and led an annual “Wake the Farm” Alternative Spring Break Trip for HWS students to dedicate an entire week of service to supporting the local and regional farm community. The mission of the trip is to support sustainable agriculture and become more aware of our local and regional food system. Students are encouraged to source their meal plan for the week as locally and sustainably as possible. In spring 2014, cooking parties prior to the trip were arranged in order to prepare food for consumption in advance. The program is led and coordinated by Finger Lakes Institute Community Outreach Coordinator Sarah Meyer in partnership with the HWS Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning. http://www.hws.edu/fli/hwsfarm.aspx