Washington and Lee University
IN-48: Innovation B

W&L is proud to announce a new partnership with the Indigenous-led non-profit NDPonics in supporting opportunities for place-based learning in the Irish Creek region of Rockbridge County. This partnership became official in 2023 with the donation of a 6-acre parcel, land documented as originally inhabited by the Yesa people, from W&L to NDPonics, and the agreement to collaborate on efforts to promote education and conservation through use of this land. Newly named Kihkǫspé:hla, the 6-acre parcel is now owned and managed under conservation easement by NDPonics. The site, a roughly 25-minute drive from the W&L campus, offers a building with bathroom facilities and internet capacity and is an appropriate base for hands-on projects and research related to environmental science as well as topics from various disciplines that will be better informed through location-based learning. Topics specific to indigenous culture - historic and present - including traditional ecological knowledge, widely recognized as key to meeting the current environmental crises of climate change and destruction of biodiversity, are particularly appropriate. The property is available to members of the W&L community for teaching, research, and programming purposes on request. Members of the NDPonics board and represnentatives from W&L have formed a working group fort regular communication and intentional thought on making the most of this collaboration.