The American College of Greece
AC-5: Immersive Experience

The Yalova Ecosystem Experience

In May 12-18, 2018, the ACG Center of Excellence for Sustainability (CES), in collaboration with the Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO -a synergy between the University of Stockholm, the Academy of Athens and Costa Navarino) and with the support of the Deree Environmental Studies program, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, organized the first ever-interdepartmental academic field trip, held at both the ACG Aghia Paraskevi campus and the Yalova Lagoon in Messinia. This is the first time that such a task, educational/research multi-day fieldwork, was undertaken at ACG

This five-day workshop was an immersive and experiential learning experience aimed at enhancing education for sustainability. Participants gained hands-on experience by engaging in lab and field activities while simultaneously enjoying every aspect of this opportunity.
This immersive program tackled sustainability from both an institutional as well as an educational perspective. Biology, environmental science, sociology and management come together in order to holistically appreciate and understand the multi-faceted entity that is an ecosystem, especially a fragile and important biotope as the UNESCO - protected Yalova region.

The Yalova Ecosystem Experience was organized by the ACG Center of Excellence for Sustainability – Office of Public Affairs and the Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO), which is a synergy between the University of Stockholm, the Academy of Athens and Costa Navarino. The workshop and field trip were also organized in collaboration with the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Environmental Studies Major.

As an outcome of this collaboration, three students (2 Environmental Studies and 1 from Finance) worked on projects (as part of their capstone/honors thesis) on location at the Yalova Lagoon. In addition one student from Psychology has embarked on field work in the region from Fall 2019. Concurrently, two other students (Environmental Studies) are working on their field/laboratory projects to map the ACG Hymmetus ecosystem using the methodology tested in the field during the expedition. This is the first time in the history of the ES program that all graduating students conducted/are conducting field/laboratory work as part of their capstone projects. In total, within a single year six research projects were/are being carried out on campus and in Messinia due to the Yalova Experience.