Ithaca College
ER-12: Sustainability Immersive Experience

The Outdoor Adventure Leadership Immersion Semester Program is a semester long immersion experience in which students acquire knowledge of the environment and the best way to foster low impact social-environmental interactions. The immersion semester starts in the San Juan Islands where students will travel via kayak exploring the Puget Sound. While in the San Juan's students will begin to explore the very nature of wilderness experiences. Students will explore this region for three weeks living in backcountry environments for the duration. Upon completion of this portion of the semester, students will live and study in the North Cascades, where the focus will move to the logistics of expedition planning and risk management. Students will spend five weeks living in the town of Index, WA participating in a traditional classroom setting. The next stage takes place rafting on the Lower Salmon River in Idaho or rock climbing in Central Washington where students will be introduced to environmental ethics and land management issues. Students live and travel in remote locations for a week, then return to the Index to explore the complexities of wilderness. The final stage of the immersion semester will take place backpacking and traveling in the alpine zone of the north cascades for three weeks studying leadership, judgment, and decision makings abilities.

Successful graduates are eligible for outdoor leader certification, which is recognized by employers across the country for enhancing the safety standards of adventure travel and increasing the quality of educational experiences. Our certification program is accredited by the Wilderness Education Association. Students will also become certified in wilderness medicine at the wilderness first responder level and will attain master educator status with "Leave No Trace: Center for Outdoor Ethics."

Additional immersive field experiences are available:

ANTH 14500 - Service Learning in Native America LA SS Field-based introduction to the history, struggles, and contemporary efforts at revitalization of Native American communities, with a focus on contributing and giving back to local Native cultures. Reading combined with hands-on activities and field experiences in the homeland of Native Americans. 3 credits.

ANTH 37400 - Archaeological Field School NLA Experience in archaeological fieldwork. Training in the basic techniques of archaeological research design, reconnaissance, survey, mapping, excavation, and basic field laboratory methods. Use of a transit, laying out of grids, and identification of different kinds of archaeological data, such as ceramics, lithics, features, and ecofacts will be covered. 6 credits.

ANTH 38100 - Anthropological Experience in Hawaii LA SS A fieldwork-based study of the anthropology of Hawaii. The anthropological perspective is a holistic orientation that entails not just examining one aspect of culture, but exploring the interconnections between many facets of cultural history and contemporary experience. This is accomplished through a grounding in Hawaiian history and archaeology, followed by an examination of traditional agriculture, lifeways, multiculturalism, and the impact of colonization, tourism, and the native sovereignty movement. Specifically, students learn through participant observation in contexts of Hawaiian healing, sacred sites, traditional taro growing, and preserving indigenous ecology at an ethnobotanical preserve. 3 credits.

ENVS 12000 - Environmental Sentinels LA NS Field-based course that focuses on natural history, biodiversity, and development of the ability to perceive subtle changes in the environment. Primitive technology skills (friction fires, natural rope, medicinal plants, tracking, etc.) and field identification will be emphasized. Blending these skills and the approaches of deep wilderness awareness, students develop an ability to read land-use history and an appreciation for modern ecological science and natural resource management. 4 credits.

ENVS 33300 - International Environmental Policy LA This course examines an environmental issue in depth (climate change, air pollution, fisheries, endangered species, human population, water management) and the international policy negotiations around that issue. Students will attend international environmental negotiation sessions. 3 credits.

ENVS 38000/38001/38002/38003 - Selected Topics in Field Studies LA NS Field study courses provide a multiday field trip to an off-campus ecosystem. Each field study course emphasizes a unique regional topic, and students become familiar with the major geological and ecological events as well as the human impact on sustainability of the natural ecosystem(s). Students also learn to identify the predominant flora and fauna of the area. Student projects are expected to show considerable independent effort, background information, analyses, and original synthesis. May be repeated for credit for field studies in different regions for a maximum three times or 12 credits. 1-4 credits.