West Chester University of Pennsylvania
AC-5: Immersive Experience

West Chester University offers several sustainability-focused immersive programs every year (of at least one week in length) in spring break and summer break trips. For example, each Spring semester, beginning in 2013, a group of students (accompanied by a faculty member) has spent a week in Philadelphia engaged in service work and learning about sustainable agriculture. A major focus on the program is urban agriculture. During the week of service, students support urban organic gardening programs in Philadelphia, including the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's (PHS) City Harvest program and the East Park Revitalization Alliance's (EPRA) community gardens in Strawberry Mansion. Students help prepare seedlings for distribution to over 130 urban farms and gardens throughout the city. Throughout the growing season, gardens that receive these seedlings will distribute organic produce they grow to their communities, through food cupboard donations and at free farmers markets. Students also work directly in gardens to prepare them for spring planting. The overall mission is to increase access to sustainably produced, healthy food in communities that are economically disadvantaged. The program is also sources the food used for communal meals throughout the week from local farms, which provides students further education on local, seasonal food ways.

However, due to the pandemic, the university suspended the alternative break program in spring of 2020 and it will not take place again until spring of 2023 at the earliest.

Data Provided by: Ashlie B. Delshad (ADelshad@wcupa.edu)
Data Entry: Lois Howell, 27-Jan-22