An introduction to spanish language, with an emphasis on written and spoken communication.

This field-based course is a physical and philosophical exploration of wildness and wilderness. We will investigate the prehistory and historical origins of the idea of wilderness from the Paleolithic to the Industrial Revolution. Then we will commence with a focused study of the works of American nature philosophers such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and Aldo Leopold, as well as selected contemporary thinkers and related commentary, including Roderick Nash’s Wilderness and the American Mind. Simultaneous with academic studies, we will engage in an intentional reciprocal relationship with wild landscape through camping, hiking, and exploring the backcountry of Baxter State Park, Maine.

What do we mean when we say “environment”? This course will consider the interaction of humans with the environment through literature, art, film, and other forms of expression, and we will explore how representations of ‘nature’ and ‘environment’ help shape our actions with respect to the natural world. We will examine the different ways in which contemporary writers and thinkers define nature, culture, and environment to help us reconsider our conceptions of region, identify and explore where regions overlap, and revisit our ideas about place. We will look at the perspectives of writers, poets, filmmakers, and artists who engage the politics of place both in North America and beyond. The course will include reading and discussion of twenty and twenty-first American nature writers such as John Elder, Henry Beston, Anne Zwinger, Terry Tempest Williams, Hayden Carruth, Jane Brox, Ginger Strand, Don DeLillo, and Sandra Steingraber. We will also consider the work of Chris Jordan, John Pfahl, Tim Noble, Sue Webster, Tom Deininger as well as current trends in street art as responses to urban and other built environments. Throughout the course, we will mine points of intersection between the class at Sterling and a parallel course taught concurrently at Bath Spa University in the UK. Students will have the opportunity to collaborate with peers at Bath Spa in discussions and on projects through the use of appropriate technology. This course is designated as writing intensive.

In this class, students will learn the basic techniques of making paper from plant fibers and simple techniques in bookbinding. In the first half of the class, students will make paper from plant fibers using a variety of materials and paper-making techniques. In the second half of the class, students will bind and illustrate a book with the paper they have made. The theme of the book will relate to illuminating a personal experience or experiences related to living and reflecting on the nature and culture of Craftsbury- Northeast Kingdom. The book can be illustrated through text, one of a kind illustrations or through other printmaking processes.

This course is designed to introduce students to a range of topics across the humanities, spanning humankind’s prehistory, history, and histrionics. Seminar format, consisting of investigation, synthesis, and discussion, will be complemented by excursions to various businesses and individuals in the surrounding community. Topics include visual and performing arts, scientific inquiries, business endeavors, and encounters with practicing humanists. Prerequisite: Junior-level standing.

Studio Art gives students an opportunity to explore a variety of traditional and contemporary painting techniques using acrylic and egg tempera paint. This course will explore techniques such as creating grounds, glazing, blending, scumbling, and dry brush painting. Students will view work by artists using these techniques and visit galleries to survey contemporary works of art. Classes will consist of studio time, instruction, and discussions. Students will have the opportunity to share their work and offer feedback to their peers through group critiques.

This course offers students a chance to build on skills learned in Fiber Arts I. Students will learn to design and weave beautiful and practical textiles with looms from many traditions, including European floor looms, South American backstrap looms, cross-cultural tablets, Japanese kumihimo, and others. Classes will include instruction in and hands-on practice of techniques, supplemented by handouts and informal discussion. Students will work independently or in small groups, depending on loom type and availability. By the end of the semester students will have planned and implemented a variety of weaving projects and will understand the workings of various looms. The culminating event for this course will be a Fiber Arts Showcase in which students display their best work. Prerequisite: HM230

This course offers students a chance to build on skills learned in Fiber Arts I. Students will learn to design and weave beautiful and practical textiles with looms from many traditions, including European floor looms, South American backstrap looms, cross-cultural tablets, Japanese kumihimo, and others. Classes will include instruction in and hands-on practice of techniques, supplemented by handouts and informal discussion. Students will work independently or in small groups, depending on loom type and availability. By the end of the semester students will have planned and implemented a variety of weaving projects and will understand the workings of various looms. The culminating event for this course will be a Fiber Arts Showcase in which students display their best work. Prerequisite: HM230

This interdisciplinary experience consists of three main components, including a language-intensive at the University Centre of the Westfjords in Ísafjörður; home-stays with families in the Westfjords, a remote region with small villages that continue to be integrated with fishing and farming; and, finally, the opportunity to travel through some of the more remote areas of Iceland – including the central highlands around Skaftafell National Park and the East Fjords near Egilsstadir – all the while developing our skills with language, culture, and natural history to supplement our understanding of the singular nature and culture of Iceland. Students will spend three weeks in the field and a week at either end on campus.

This course explores how families serve as a locus of cultural transmission by gathering and studying family stories, particularly around culinary and musical traditions. Focusing on various traditions or a “tradition bearer” in students’ families (or in another family), we collect oral histories and consider how these traditions contribute to our sense of individual, regional, and cultural identity. Students will also be introduced to methods of folklore and ethnography, including interviewing, collecting, and other forms of documentation. Projects will include short reflection papers and a final project for display to the community. This course meets the requirement for two humanities credits emphasizing textual analysis and written critical response.

Through a wide range of literary works including those of Thoreau, Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, and M. F. K. Fisher, this course will explore the food chain that sustains us and the way the pleasures of eating are so closely connected to the natural world. In two five-week sessions, the topic of food will be examined by first looking at the farmers who produce it, the nature of farms and other food-making enterprises in America today, and finally, the culture of cooking and the rituals around the table. Each session will begin by placing farming in a historical context, tracing the demise of the small family farm after the advent of industrialized agriculture and the federal government’s call for farmers to “get big or get out.” We will then look at the movement toward a more decentralized model, examining instances of individual farmers and food makers—including those local to Vermont—whose philosophies move beyond the mantra of maximum production for minimum profit and instead value health, ecology and community. Finally, we will consider the culture around the table: the way people think about food and eating and the traditions that coincide with this. During the first session, readings and discussions will focus on the meat and dairy industries and the value-added products derived from these, while the second session will explore fruit, vegetable and grain-based foods and beverages and the people who produce them. Weekly writing assignments, reflective in nature and in response to the readings, will be required.

This course will emphasize the study of heritage within outdoor education and Canadian travel. Students will consider the following questions: Where is heritage within experiential education? How are Canadian and American experiences different? How can we introduce heritage themes to classroom and travel experiences? Furthermore, students will explore themes of story, place, and technology in outdoor education and develop an understanding of outdoor education in a Canadian context through direct, first-hand experience.

In this hands-on course, students will explore and develop some mastery with a range of pottery forms and techniques. This is an intensive, studio based, skill building workshop in wheel throwing and handbuilding techniques. Through daily demonstrations and individual instruction, plus plenty of practice time, students will explore a variety of forms in clay. By the end of this course, students will be able to throw a variety of basic pottery forms including bowls, mugs, tumblers, lidded jars, pitchers and candleholders. They will be well versed and practiced in handbuilding methods and capable of primitive firing techniques. Students will develop a vocabulary to discuss and critique pottery in terms of anatomy, form, craftsmanship, style and functionality.

Public presentation of the Senior Project to the Sterling College community. Must include a display, written report, and formal presentation utilizing PowerPoint and other technology. For students enrolled in SARP III or Senior Project II.

This class explores environmental and cultural issues on a global level. Our goal is to better understand the relationship between the natural and cultural history of a region and its current land use policies and patterns. Various regions will set the stage for discussions of timely issues such as food production and politics, the exchange of commodities on a global level, natural resource conservation and utilization, the cultural and environmental impacts of ecotourism, and environmental justice. Prerequisite: Senior Status

Senior Project is a two-part capstone learning experience for seniors interested in pursuing guided independent study or research culminating in a written project and presentation. The project is directed by a Sterling College faculty member through both part one HM/NS/SS 418 and part two HM/NS/SS 419. Prerequisites: HM/NS/SS 418 and permission of the instructor.

Senior Project is a two-part capstone learning experience for seniors interested in pursuing guided independent study or research culminating in a written project and presentation. The project is directed by a Sterling College faculty member through both part one HM/NS/SS 418 and part two HM/NS/SS 419. Permission of the instructor is required.

What do potato farming in Fort Kent Maine, an ATV park in Berlin, New Hampshire, Howard Frank Mosher’s novella Where the Rivers Flow North, and the Adirondacks’ Blue Line all have in common? Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest will explore questions of how these 30 million acres of northern New England and New York define a unified sense of region – of how we come to define a landscape and how it comes to define us. This class will pose a challenge to rethink the fundamental notion of how we define place and consider: How can the different ways in which we define "region" intersect to help build a more comprehensive understanding of how communities in the Northern Forest are shaped by—and, in turn, shape—our evolving understanding of place? By using the lenses of environmental humanities and experiential scholarship to look critically at the ways in which this region has been defined historically, students will draw from a broad range of resources and field-based experiences that will help not only to broadly reimagine the region of the Northern Forest but also to provide tools with which we can address broader regional issues in a global context. This course meets the requirement for two humanities credits emphasizing textual analysis and written critical response.

In this course, students will create short original animated videos that address critical environmental issues of particular concern to them, for example, GMO seeds or wind power. Part of the course will be devoted to viewing and discussing historically important examples of issue oriented animation by well known artists with a view to learning what makes animation so effective at addressing issues. The other part of the course will consist of hands-on video production using a variety of mediums ranging from drawing, to clay, to animating household objects, cut-out pictures, toys, or objects from nature. We will evaluate the work of animation artists such as William Kentridge, (South Africa) who addresses apartheid. Norman McLaren, (Canada), famous for his pixilated anti-war film of the Vietnam War era, and Jan Svankmajer, (Czech Republic) whose rich and imaginative animations take on issues of life under an oppressive regime. We will view contemporary animations from collections such as the Media that Matters film archives, and various International Human Rights film festival, focusing particularly on films that address environmental issues. In the hands-on production aspect of the class students will learn the essentials of how to make stop motion animation. They will come up with a visually compelling concept that will effectively convey their ideas about their chosen environmental topic. Students will make simple sets, and animate their drawings or objects shooting frame by frame with a video or digital still camera connected to their laptop. After shooting students will add simple sound effects and music.

Investigates the nature of people and their relationships to the total environment with particular focus on human ecology. The course begins with the origins of Homo sapiens and moves from hunter-gatherer adaptations through the impact of the domestication of plants and animals to the emergence of industrial and post-industrial societies. Land use patterns and attitudes in North America serve as particular examples for the ways in which cultural adaptations and ecological conditions intersect. This course fosters critical reading and writing skills through discussion and written analysis of varied perspectives in assigned readings and activities.

Intended to serve as a capstone course for Circumpolar Studies majors and as an opportunity for resident and guest faculty to share their research and expertise, the Circumpolar Studies Senior Seminar will examine a particular topic of northern interest in great depth and detail. Students will be responsible for a significant related research project and presentation. Potential topics include: The Paleoecology of Central Asia and Mongolia, Imagining and Imaging the Arctic: Film, Art, and Photography in the Far North, Reindeer Herding and Caribou Hunting, Theology of the North: Shamanism, Animism, and Missions. Prerequisite: HM/NS/SS255 Introduction to the North or permission of the instructor.

Travel to Labrador and Newfoundland or Hokaido, Japan, during the September Intensive provides opportunity for students and faculty to explore natural and human communities before returning for Fall Semester coursework. Spring Semester coursework provides the basis for field study in the Shetland Islands during Spring Intensive. Summer field study offerings vary from research opportunities in Mongolia to archaeological exploration in Canada. Lab fee. Prerequisite: HM/NS/SS255 Introduction to the North or permission of the instructor.

Travel to Labrador and Newfoundland or Hokaido, Japan, during the September Intensive provides opportunity for students and faculty to explore natural and human communities before returning for Fall Semester coursework. Spring Semester coursework provides the basis for field study in the Shetland Islands during Spring Intensive. Summer field study offerings vary from research opportunities in Mongolia to archaeological exploration in Canada. Lab fee. Prerequisite: HM/NS/SS255 Introduction to the North or permission of the instructor.

This field-based course is an exploration of marine environments with emphasis on the North Atlantic. We begin with an introduction to oceanographic topics such as sea floor spreading, wave dynamics, ocean currents and tides, and general marine ecology. We progress to a survey of marine algae and invertebrate phyla, and culminate with a treatment of marine vertebrates with a focus on sea birds and marine mammals. This course combines lectures and discussions with intensive field activities such as sea kayaking, tidepooling, and offshore excursions. PREREQUISITE: NS207: Ecology

As one travels further north, the number of species declines dramatically, and the contrast between day and night shifts to summer-long days and winter-long nights. The culture of the circumpolar north is as markedly different as is its ecology. Intended as an overall introduction to the North, this course considers the ecological and cultural contexts for northern life.

Focuses on the history and development of sustainable environmental practices in Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The course incorporates visits to schools, colleges, non-governmental planning organizations, as well as alternative building and energy generating facilities. By talking with the people of Scandinavia, students and faculty gain new insight into the web of activities needed to move a society toward caring for the earth while developing communities. Tools of systems dynamics, such as closed loop diagramming and stock-flow modeling, are introduced and incorporated into daily travel journals.

Public presentation of the Senior Applied Research Project (SARP) to the Sterling College community. Must include a display, written report, and formal presentation utilizing PowerPoint and other technology. Prerequisite: SS440 or NS440.

Focuses on real people implementing sustainable practices in agriculture and natural resource management on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The course helps students gain new insights into Japanese communities through site visits, home stays, and conversation with students at Obihiro and Hokaido universities. Tools of systems dynamics such as closed loop diagramming and stock-flow modeling are introduced and incorporated into journals. Lab fee.

Depending on the semester, students experience an intensive introduction to the ecology, society, and culture of their new environment in northern New England. This includes studying local botany, human history, land-use practices of the regional economy, and the local artisan community. Students begin outdoor challenge activities and small group work, learn about establishing norms of social conduct, build community, and initiate conversations about what it means to live sustainably. This course consists of group discussions, tours, orientations to various Sterling College programs, and outdoor activities. Topics and content vary by semester.

Focuses on issues of current concern to students, who will work on independent projects reflective of their interests. Topics chosen will normally relate to students' majors. Visiting guest lecturers and field trips to academic, research, and political centers in New England and Canada complement classwork and research.

Focuses on issues of current concern to students, who will work on independent projects reflective of their interests. Topics chosen will normally relate to students' majors. Visiting guest lecturers and field trips to academic, research, and political centers in New England and Canada complement classwork and research.

Focuses on northern expressions through literature, art, and film, with a special emphasis on ecological and native viewpoints. Circumpolar literature will consider both the ethnographic record and contemporary creative literature, including particular emphasis on comparisons between northern and western treatments. Northern film will explore cinematic treatments of the Circumpolar North from Siberia to Alaska. This writing intensive course meets the requirement for two Humanities credits emphasizing textual analysis and written critical response. Prerequisite: HM/SS/NS255 Introduction to the North or permission of the instructor.

Part of the Mountain Culture Semester. Begins with formal preparation in the U.S. through diverse readings and discussion on Sikkimese culture, Buddhism, and the history and geography of Sikkim. Full immersion in the Sikkimese culture follows during seven weeks in the state of Sikkim in northeastern India. Activities include trekking and mountaineering, homestays with local families, and service projects. Reflective journaling is an integral part of the course (see HM321). Students also develop written documentation of their learning in six major areas: physical geography, cultural and political history, Buddhist tradition and practice, the influence of other cultures, current land use and development plans, and daily life in Sikkim.

Individual project relating to the Sterling College curriculum in a general way under the supervision of an appropriate faculty member. Students must submit an initial proposal to a faculty sponsor two weeks prior to the end of the semester preceding the semester for which the study is proposed. Proposals should include a justification for the number of credits earned. For off-campus independent study, extensive planning and monitoring with a faculty advisor is essential. An administrative fee is charged to cover college costs of overseeing off-campus self-designed studies. (Juniors and Seniors only)

Individual project relating to the Sterling College curriculum in a general way under the supervision of an appropriate faculty member. Students must submit an initial proposal to a faculty sponsor two weeks prior to the end of the semester preceding the semester for which the study is proposed. Proposals should include a justification for the number of credits earned. For off-campus independent study, extensive planning and monitoring with a faculty advisor is essential. An administrative fee is charged to cover college costs of overseeing off-campus self-designed studies. (Juniors and Seniors only)

Individual project relating to the Sterling College curriculum in a general way under the supervision of an appropriate faculty member. Students must submit an initial proposal to a faculty sponsor two weeks prior to the end of the semester preceding the semester for which the study is proposed. Proposals should include a justification for the number of credits earned. For off-campus independent study, extensive planning and monitoring with a faculty advisor is essential. An administrative fee is charged to cover college costs of overseeing off-campus self-designed studies. (Juniors and Seniors only)

Part of the Mountain Cultures Semester and associated with HM361 Intercultural Studies. Classes prepare students for recording thoughts and observations while on site during the Mountain Cultures Semester. Preparation focuses on good examples of journal writing, choosing verbal snapshots, reflecting cogently on experiences, and polishing several pieces. Following their return, students submit drafts, edit and revise, and offer select works for publication and evaluation. This course meets the requirement for two Humanities credits emphasizing textual analysis and written critical response.

This course explores traditional and contemporary nature writing in order to examine the ways in which this genre—and its cultural function—has changed with our increased awareness of the influence of humans on the non-human world. Texts include the work of such writers as Henry David Thoreau, Janisse Ray, Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Gary Snyder, Michael Pollan, Jamaica Kincaid, Annie Dillard, and Edward Abbey (as well as selected films). At the heart of our exploration lie such questions as: What does it mean to represent the non-human world through language? What role do language and literature play in our understanding of the relationship between humans and our physical environment? What do cultural texts (literature, film, visual art, etc.) reveal about this relationship and how it has changed over history? Why has traditional nature writing been so dominated by white voices, and what perspectives do other voices offer? How have more recent writers challenged traditional paradigms of the human/nature relationship through writing? Reading and discussion are complemented by regular writing, through which we analyze examples of literary nature writing, as well as consider our own experiences of and insights about the world around us. Written projects include keeping an informal journal and writing both analytical and creative essays. Significant time will be spent outside the classroom. This course meets the requirement for two humanities credits emphasizing textual analysis and written critical response.

This course will investigate various forms of creative expression, with an emphasis on poetry and short fiction. We will read widely in order to consider characteristics of style and to strengthen skills of literary analysis. Frequent writing exercises will encourage risk-taking and the exploration of new approaches. Student work will be regularly shared and discussed within our group. A final portfolio or comparable product will enable each student to showcase his or her best work.

Open for topics of special interest to faculty and students in a particular year. A group wishing to initiate a course will draw up a detailed syllabus to keep on file and submit it to the Dean of Academics for approval. A recent example is The Art of Place. Students were introduced to tools for community building such as labyrinths, stone rings, and circle dance.

Open for topics of special interest to faculty and students in a particular year. A group wishing to initiate a course will draw up a detailed syllabus to keep on file and submit it to the Dean of Academics for approval. A recent example is The Art of Place. Students were introduced to tools for community building such as labyrinths, stone rings, and circle dance.

This course surveys traditional teachings in Indigenous, Eastern, and Western religious traditions and the resources they may offer in thinking about the current global ecological crisis. This course also looks at the works of several contemporary "ecotheologians" and writers such as Aldo Leopold, Sallie McFague, and Matthew Fox. Finally, this course asks how concepts from such varied world views and perspectives might be brought together to motivate the most number of people to bring about significant change. Assignments include readings, short papers, and group assignments. This course meets the requirement for two Humanities credits emphasizing textual analysis and written critical response.

Individual project relating to the Sterling College curriculum under the supervision of an appropriate faculty member. First-year students are eligible to do an independent study in their second semester. To do a spring independent study, a first-year student must submit an initial proposal to a faculty sponsor two weeks prior to the end of the fall semester. For all students, the faculty sponsor and the Dean of Academics must approve final proposals before the end of the first week of classes in the semester for which the study is proposed.

Individual project relating to the Sterling College curriculum under the supervision of an appropriate faculty member. First-year students are eligible to do an independent study in their second semester. To do a spring independent study, a first-year student must submit an initial proposal to a faculty sponsor two weeks prior to the end of the fall semester. For all students, the faculty sponsor and the Dean of Academics must approve final proposals before the end of the first week of classes in the semester for which the study is proposed.

Examines the importance of landscape and place in the works of both classical and contemporary spiritual and nature writers, including Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It, and Terry Tempest Williams's Refuge. Assignments will include readings and several short papers. This course meets the requirement for two Humanities credits emphasizing textual analysis and written critical response.

The use of animal and plant fibers, both wild and cultivated, has ancient and world-wide roots. Products carefully and lovingly made from the fiber resources at hand have served people well for millennia

Throughout the world, storytelling has served to transmit knowledge and illumine the nights. In many indigenous cultures, this tradition is still active, embodied in the stories themselves, or in the music, masks and other art, dance, ritual, and food. In addition to studying the folklore and ecology of stories, songs, and traditions of northern peoples, students will prepare storytelling events.

Individual project relating to the Sterling College curriculum under the supervision of an appropriate faculty member. First-year students are eligible to do an independent study in their second semester. To do a spring independent study, a first-year student must submit an initial proposal to a faculty sponsor two weeks prior to the end of the fall semester. For all students, the faculty sponsor and the Dean of Academics must approve final proposals before the end of the first week of classes in the semester for which the study is proposed.

Discussion of the values and influences of rural life as reflected in selections from North American regional literature. Includes an investigation of literary devices and style in these works. This course meets the requirement for two Humanities credits emphasizing textual analysis and written critical response.

Provides an overview of the use of 35mm equipment to produce top-quality natural history images for illustration, publication, education, and exhibition. This course in interpretive nature photography is ideal for educators and interpreters who wish to use photography to enhance their presentations and lectures. Diverse local ecosystems are visited to give students a range of subjects upon which to focus and to employ the techniques covered in lectures. Students are required to provide their own cameras and cover costs of film and film processing.

Students focus on professional presentation skills while analyzing and summarizing an internship experience. Critical reflection, narrative writing, and public speaking are practiced as students work to create a 15-minute public presentation using some form of audio-visual technology. Prerequisite: SS300.

Diverse readings chronicling the power of individuals and groups who face physical hardship yet maintain or even enhance their basic humanity provide a basis for discussion and writing. Works include expedition histories, essays, survival sagas, diaries, and films illuminating people's quest for challenge, as well as their responses to adversity. Class discussions and written assignments focus on both content and style with the intent that students develop their appreciation of artistic quality as well as their insights into the human urge for challenge. This class fulfills the requirements for a 200-level humanities course emphasizing writing and textual analysis.

Focuses on the design and creation of projects using wood. Provides experience in a range of woodworking techniques through individual projects using hand and power tools. Each student designs and builds a wood joinery project to be exhibited at a public show. Students buy their own wood and supplies for the project.

How do national and international political and social issues affect our local communities? How can our words speak to these issues and challenge our audience to think, feel, and act? These questions will inform our exploration of writing and public speaking this semester. We will focus on strengthening our written and spoken voices, writing 4-5 essays in a variety of genres, and revising each as we work through multiple drafts. Reading a variety of published essays will help us consider different approaches and styles. A final project will draw on skills we have developed all semester, culminating in a product that will be presented to a broader audience in a format of each student’s choice.

Entails serving as a teaching assistant in a course previously completed with a satisfactory grade. Introduces strategies for the planning, preparation, presentation, and evaluation required for teaching at the college level. Students work with the faculty member teaching the class to develop a detailed plan for participation in the teaching of the class prior to the beginning of the semester in which the course is offered. This course may be repeated once if serving as a teaching assistant in a different course. Prerequisites: Junior or Senior standing, prior completion of the course with a grade of B or higher, and permission of instructor.

Explores time management, reading, writing, and note taking strategies. Students meet individually with the instructor to identify learning strengths and weaknesses. Students are encouraged to be proactive in identifying learning problems and in finding appropriate strategies to overcome these difficulties. Students develop communication skills and motivation to make full use of instructional faculty and realize their own learning potential. This course focuses on learning readiness to facilitate students' abilities to understand their own learning styles and develop the strategies necessary to function independently in a college setting. Entails discussions and individual conferences. Graded on a pass/fail basis.

This class will focus on creating art related to the landscape of the Black River Watershed. It is open to students with any level of experience with art. The class will employ a combination of on-site art making, discussion, individual meetings and group critiques to facilitate the understanding and the practice of making landscape art. We will focus primarily on the activities of drawing and painting. Specifically we will spend time painting and sketching in the field. We will attempt to organize our work around salient features of the local landscape wit brief field trips in the Black River Valley and Lake Memphremagog.

The Rural Heritage Institute at Sterling College (RHI) is a focused learning experience comprised of four-day series of interdisciplinary academic presentations and experiential workshops scheduled for late June. RHI will offer students the opportunity to engage in discussions with leading thinkers and practitioners in the fields of rural and area studies, agrarian studies, local economies, and related disciplines. In addition to attending all of the week's events, credit-seeking students will be required to write a final synthesizing essay. Lab fee required.

Students who are continuing work on their Senior Applied Research Projects beyond enrollment in the NS,SS 440 / HM 445 sequence should register for this course each semester until a final project is submitted.

In order to take advantage of the wide variety of Sterling-and faculty-sponsored, extra-curricular lectures, seminars, workshops, conferences and the like, event credit allows students to accrue credit for attendance and participation at pre-approved faculty-endorsed events. An event is considered to be a single 1-1/2 hour lecture or film, a 3-hour workshop, or the like; if a student attends an event as a class assignment, that event may NOT count as event credit. Each event credit requires 15 events, and is repeatable for up to two credits. Event credit must be filed within one calendar year from the first event, and students must be enrolled in the course in order to submit a portfolio. Students are individually responsible for obtaining faculty endorsement for applying for cumulative credits with a portfolio of materials.