Students in grades 11 & 12, as well as gap-year learners, are invited to dive deep into the issues of our time. Ground yourself with current research, hone your critical skills, rock your college application, rekindle hope, change our world.
At a Community School semester, you’ll
- Delve into the science and politics of climate change
- Define and plan for Resilience
- Self identify as problem solver and explore personal, familial, and community influences on that identity
- Identify and comprehend factors contributing to climate denial
- Explore social justice issues impeding problem solving progress
- Understand the disproportionate impact of climate change on BIPOC and the poor
- Become fluent in your understanding of our political systems: structures, history, shifts over time, threats
- Connect to local foods as activism
- Collaborate to share information, shift a paradigm, change a practice here at TCS
- Teach community members or peers what you know
- Plan for action in your own school/home community
Integrated Project Work
- Use soil and forest management to sequester carbon
- Devise carbon offset tools or programs
- Harvest methane from farm and school waste for power and heat using a student designed/built biodigester
- Explore the use of living machines to recycle grey water and septic waste
- Produce food for school and community needs, minimizing co2 impacts
- Develop regional composting initiatives tied to methane harvest and soil development
- Utilize permaculture and aquaponics to generate food year round in a student design/built bioshelter
- Work with local and state officials to plan for and affect change
Connected Classroom Studies
- Read literature by diverse authors focusing on social justice themes and experiences; notable news reporting; essays; and articles
- Write with intent for public audiences (OpEd, research, grants)
- Express yourself through poetry, letter writing, journaling
- Apply to college
- Solve math problems and grow skill sets within sending school math subject
School/Farm Life
- Collaboratively manage living space with bunk mates in off-grid cabins
- Share meals with community members and elders
- Participate in daily farm chores: livestock, greenhouse, schoolhouse
- Prepare one meal per month
- Plan, with at least one other person, a “fun night” for students or the wider community; showcase your talent or passion!
- Take part in seasonal opportunities: river and lake swimming; trail riding; sheep shearing and lambing; hiking and camping; kayaking; snowshoeing/ skiing/snowboarding; fishing; local theater productions; contra dancing; farmers market