The Expedition Education Institute in partnership with Marlboro College offers traveling graduate, gap year, and college programs focused within bioregions of North America.

Full semester programs span up to 15 weeks with at least 12 weeks in the field and in community. Undergraduate students have the potential to earn 15 college credits.

The Expedition Education Institute (EEI) offers Gap Year programs that support you in learning from direct experience and in collaboration with others.

On our full semester programs, our small learning community of students and faculty lives and learns together as we explore nature and culture, environmental problems and ecological solutions, along a theme and within broad bioregions.

Organized as the equivalent to a semester abroad, Expedition Education Institute offers a unique opportunity for gap year participants to be personally transformed and academically challenged and supported to become better and more self-directed life-long learners.

An expedition semester combines the best of liberal arts education, leadership training, transformative experiential learning and cultural immersion.

Our Master of Arts in Teaching for Ecological Education and Leadership (MAT-E) program is run in partnership with Marlboro College’s Graduate and Professional Studies. EEI has been educating ecological leaders and educators at the graduate level for more than 25 years, working from a specially designed, self-contained bus that travels to different regions for hands-on, immersive learning. The program is designed to be completed in 15 months. All master’s candidates spend two full terms (fall and winter/spring) living, learning, and traveling on the bus in an intergenerational, ecologically focused, co-created community.

Ecology, Economy, and Community in the Pacific Northwest

Over the course of the semester, we will create a learning community and become engaged in an inquiry into what it takes to sustain both human and ecological communities.

Resilience, Energy and Climate Justice in the Desert Southwest

The rich cultural heritage and enchanting landscapes of the Southwest is the backdrop for our exploration of our society’s use and pursuit of energy: past, present and future. As we investigate regional manifestations of national and global energy issues, we learn solutions from local organizations and individuals. Their creativity and dedication to a just world inspire us to develop our own leadership skills.

Energy and Climate Justice from the Northeast to the Gulf Coast

One of our fall semester programs takes us from the northeast to Appalachian mountains to the Gulf Coast, as we explore our own and our society’s use and pursuit of energy: past, present and future. (May be offered again fall 2017 or fall 2018)

We start in Green Mountains and Adirondacks with a look at “Renewable and Clean” energy in the forms of Nuclear and Hydro and Wind powers, then spend time moving through New York and Pennsylvania becoming familiar with Hydrofracking and the communities impacted by this technology, and finally, into West Virginia  where mountaintops of coal are being removed.

Sustainable Food & Farming in California

We begin this semester in southern California, meeting inspiring farmers and educators, seeking to understand the complexities of how much of our food is produced and the importance of considering farmworkers in the equation. We make our way north over the semester continuing the exploration into myriad aspects of our relationships with food production and consumption, the land it is grown on and the people engaged in the processes. We delve into the history of the land and people of California. This will be a semester about growing food and growing ourselves and our worldviews.