Program Description
Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College offers a nine-week undergraduate program designed as an intensive experience in important aspects of sustainable agriculture. The intensive is appropriate to science majors who envision involvement in aspects of sustainable agriculture, as well as to students of any discipline who wish to better understand the diversity, balance, sustainability and regeneration inherent to a healthy food system.
Program design and philosophy
The Environmental Science Program at Goshen College equips students to analyze environmental issues from biological, economic, and social/political perspectives - tools necessary for addressing questions of human ecology. The agroecology Summer Intensive includes four courses:
- Vegetable Crops
- Soils
- Agroecology
- Small Farm Management
These courses are part of the Environmental Science offerings, but can also be transferred into other schools’ programs. The ES Agroecology Concentration can be completed in eight semesters including the term of the Summer Intensive.
All four courses are delivered at Merry Lea. Students live in the cottages of Rieth Village, which is situated in the midst of agroecology plots and the ecosystems at Merry Lea. The setting provides an outstanding living classroom for interactive learning. The summer experience is designed to foster environmental awareness and leadership in participants.
