Science Spotlight: School of the Environment

The College is a surprisingly busy place during the summer, with its hodgepodge of researchers, employees, Bread Loaf students, and language learners. This summer, 11 students attending the new Middlebury School of the Environment also joined the mix. The program ran for six weeks, from June 20 to Aug. 1.

The School of the Environment is the brainchild of its director and Professor of Environmental and Biosphere Studies Stephen Trombulak. Trombulak initially proposed the idea of a summer school in the late 1990’s. After years of planning, the Middlebury board of trustees approved the school in the spring of 2013.

Trombulak thinks the College is uniquely positioned to start a successful environmental summer school because of its long history of summer programs, large network of alumni in environmental careers and strong, pioneering environmental studies department.

“Middlebury has had an environmental studies program as part of its academic curriculum for almost 50 years,” Trombulak said. “In fact, Middlebury’s program in environmental studies was the first major anywhere in the country, founded in 1965. We have worked tirelessly over the years to build a program that highlights the best of what is needed to offer a full spectrum of exposure to the study of the environment.”

Despite being the school’s first summer, students thought it was a success.

“It was an amazing summer,” wrote Isaac Baker ’14.5 in an email. “Given that it was the first year of the program, I had my reservations, but the faculty really showed up and put in the time to make it an incredibly immersive and valuable experience.”

Students took three courses. Two courses, including Sustainability Practicum, equivalent to Middlebury’s Environmental Studies Senior Seminar, and Understanding Place, a course focusing on Lake Champlain as a case study, were mandatory. The third course was an elective. Kaitlin Fink ’16 explained they were not typical college courses.

“I came into this program thinking that I was enrolled in three environmental studies courses; what I came away with was a whole new method of approaching complex systems in general – not just the environment – and a set of skills that has given me greater confidence in my ability to hopefully affect broader change in the future,” she said.

Baker agreed that the courses were more hands-on than normal college courses.

“We had reading, and plenty of it, but most days were spent doing things like working on a project, going to a museum, taking a historically-oriented hike, interviewing folks a few years into their environmental careers, or taking core samples on the College’s research vessel [The RV Folger],” he said.

For a four-week project in their Sustainability Practicum course, students were tasked with identifying problems the College could face in the future because of climate change and formulating solutions. The School of the Environment will consider and possibly implement their ideas.

“We chose to propose the purchase of a high-voltage generator for extended power outages, the burial of all above-ground power lines on campus, and the implementation of a rainwater collection system for several of our campus buildings” Fink said. “It was amazing to get to have this sort of ‘real world’ experience. I’m hoping to continue to work on our proposals throughout the rest of my time here at Middlebury, and maybe help to push along the path toward implementation.”

On a typical day students were busy from nine until dinner with breaks in between. Fink found that the small size of the school had several benefits.

“We were all taking the same set of courses, so, unlike during the standard school year, we could draw on ideas or readings from one course in discussion with another. Our conversations in class would spill over into our meal periods, which our professors attended with us, making for an incredibly rich intellectual environment where it was entirely normal for dialogues about Marxism or animal rights to exist alongside standard lunchtime chatter.”

The school had ten visiting speakers - called “practitioners in residence” - come to talk about their experiences working for positive environmental change. The speakers included Schumann Distinguished Scholar Bill McKibben, renowned activist and founder of 350.org, Gus Speth, environmental author and former member of the President’s Task Force on Global Resources and Environment, and Alden Woodrow, business team leader for Google’s Makani airborne wind turbine project.

“What’s really unique about the school and what makes it so exciting is that we’re embedding not just information about the environment, but the skills necessary for students to become leaders in the field and to do something with the information,” Trombulak explained. “[The practitioners in residence] will not just talk about the skills in theory but how those skills have played out in their own settings and their own sectors they’ve been working in.”

Baker agreed that the visiting fellows were a highlight of the program.

“The mix of people the school brought in was what kept each long day feel manageable, while also making it exciting and meaningful,” Baker said.

The school was located in Middlebury its first summer but Trombulak thinks it will eventually move to a different location.

“There are many exciting possibilities,” Tromhulak said. “We could establish a campus in a city to explore issues associated with urban studies, or hold the school in a coastal region to explore curricula associated with marine studies.”
For Fink, her summer at the school was a motivating experience.

“The School of the Environment reignited my passion for the environmental challenges facing our world today, and I feel like I have started to develop the tools that will enable me to dive in somewhere and be able to effect positive change,” she said. “I don’t have all the answers yet – I don’t think I ever really will - but I know that I care, and now I at least know how and where to start.”