Sustainability Program

Land Acknowledgement: 

Let us take a moment to acknowledge St. Lawrence University is part of a colonial settler culture that lives on land inhabited by the Kanien’keha:ka tribe of the Haudenosaunee people.

Apply Sustainability Program 2023-2024: APPLY HERE 

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis from the beginning of Spring 2023 term through March 27th, 2023.

Open House:

March 11th 12-3 pm 

Sustainability Program Site 1894 State Hwy 68, Canton NY 13617 

Transportation meet at bookstore 12, 1, 2 or email sjoseph@stlawu.edu

Returning Student Interest 2023-2024: Apply to be a Sustainability Program Steward (Due March 27)

• A small number of spaces may be available in the house for students who have completed the flagship program and are interested in returning to live in the house again.
• Returning students would be required to:
  • Participate in the daily life, chores, and community-building of the living-learning community.
  • Participate in an advanced version of the farm practicum (both fall and spring) through a CBL Independent Study (half or whole credit options available). As part of this independent study, students will have the opportunity to develop an in-depth independent project building on previous farm and program experience.
• Please email sustainability@stlawu.edu with a brief statement of your interest by March 27th, including:
  • “Sustainability Program Steward” in subject line
  • Why you would like to live at the farm again this coming year
  • Whether you have any questions or concerns about the required CBL Independent Study/advanced practicum element, or about any other aspect of returning to the farm
  • Anything else you’d like to share!

Sustainability Program Information

We are an immersive, year-long, experiential learning program focused on exploring sustainability through a rigorous core curriculum and hands-on, locally-rooted participation in food production and community-building within the living-learning environment at the Sustainability Site. Learning through hands-on experience complements traditional in-class learning methods, making complex ideas tangible through problem-solving. Students learn about global issues surrounding sustainability in the classroom, then they continue to explore these issues through lived experience in the house and on the farm. Learning continues beyond the standard class time, and living in the house together is an opportunity for intellectual and social exploration. In this space, students may experience and reflect on how food, economic, energy, and sociopolitical systems are continually intersecting. We emphasize collective decision-making and value diverse perspectives. In addition to the flagship year-long living-learning program, there are a variety of ways students, faculty, staff, and community members can get involved with the program. All are welcome.

Sustainability Program Learning Goals

After completing the year-long flagship living-learning program (including Approaches to Sustainability, Communicating Sustainability, and fall and spring Farm Practicum), students will be able to:

1. Describe how sustainability issues involve dynamic relationships among ecosystems and social systems that are embedded in ongoing histories of exploitation.

2. Discuss their own intersectional social positions within the ongoing histories of exploitation that have produced a planetary crisis in sustainability.

3. Evaluate and synthesize transdisciplinary knowledge of the systems involved in sustainability by intentionally seeking out multiple perspectives, including academic perspectives, community perspectives, and perspectives that have been marginalized.

4. Communicate about sustainability from different perspectives, to different audiences, and in different modes (e.g. speaking, writing, and art).

5. Articulate how participating in food production and community-building within a living-learning community is relevant to broader challenges of sustainability.