Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 50.16
Liaison Elaine Durr
Submission Date Nov. 9, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Elon University
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Elaine Durr
Senior Director of Sustainability
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution offer at least one immersive, sustainability-focused educational study program that meets the criteria for this credit?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-focused immersive program(s) offered by the institution:

The Periclean Scholars Program is a 3 year program for selected students. Led by their faculty mentor, each cohort of Periclean Scholars takes classes together and determines global problems that they choose to study and address. Work on these problems is from a sustainability perspective and the Class has to make a difference by designing a project to address the problem. Projects typically involve significant fundraising with students traveling abroad to implement their project, typically in the capstone course they take senior year. An example is the Periclean Scholars Class of 2013 whose project involved working with immigrants from Chiapas, Mexico and establishing the Hogares Sanos program in Burlington, NC that is now a project of the Class of 2016.
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/academics/special_programs/project_pericles/scholars.xhtml

Other examples of immersive experiences that focus on sustainability are semester and summer study abroad programs including Australia: University of the Sunshine Coast; Australia: Curtin University; Australia: Tropical Rainforest Studies (SFS); Bhutan: Eastern Himalayan Forests & Rural Livelihoods (SFS); Costa Rica: Sustainable Development Studies; Denmark: DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad); Kenya & Tanzania (SFS); Panama: Tropical Island Biodiversity and Conservation Studies; New Zealand, Dunedin: University of Otago (Arcadia); Scotland, St. Andrews: University of St. Andrews; Semester at Sea; South Africa, Kruger National Park: African Ecology & Conservation (OTS); South Africa-Stellenbosch: Sustainability & Community (CIEE) and Turks and Caicos: Marine Protected Areas (SFS).
Examples of short-term study abroad courses with a sustainability focus, include Costa Rica: Language, Culture, and Ecotourism; Australia: Ecotourism in Australia; Adventure Based Eco-Tourism in New Zealand; Costa Rica Jungle: Community, Conservation, Service; Belize/Peru: Field Biology and Peru: Sustainable Development: Microfinance and Agriculture - Winter (Embedded).
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/academics/international_studies/studyabroad/programs.xhtml

The University also offers a 5-day summer orientation program framed around sustainability. The program, Thrive, is open to about 20 self-selected incoming first-year students. Each day, students explore campus and community resources and examine how some of our basic needs like food, water and more equitable communities are met while living at Elon. Activities may include discussions, a hike at a nearby nature preserve, a service learning project or tour of a water treatment facility. Thrive helps students become familiar with their new home and provides tools for choosing to live more sustainably.
http://www.elon.edu/e-web/students/new-student-transition-program/fse.xhtml


The website URL where information about the immersive program(s) is available:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
---

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.