Creating Community

Help shape your new community to be imaginative, inspiring, and inclusive! Explore different mediums of art with local artists, UVM faculty and staff, and community organizations. Visit the Burlington South End Arts District to learn block printing with UVM Art professor jen berger at The Hive, a collective artists’ studio. Leave your mark on the Arts and Creativity Learning Community: local artist Corrinne Yonce will guide students through a collaborative mural project which will be displayed in your Residence Hall! Trisha Denton, videographer and ethnographer, will facilitate a storytelling workshop and incorporate student voices into this multimedia project.

Program Highlights: Visiting collective artist studios in the Burlington Arts District; participating in a block printmaking workshop; creating a collaborative mural project for the Residence Hall; learning about art opportunities at UVM and in the community

Choose Your Own Adventure!

Join other Gaming Collective students for this early move-in program focused on playing games, teamwork, and having fun. Spend time on campus and in the community, exploring the best sites and social spaces for gaming. Learn design theory and how to design your own game with UVM faculty and staff. Gamified experiences, like secret actions and side quests, will put you on course for an exciting 3-day adventure!

Program Highlights: Learning game theory; designing your own game and miniatures; participating in an Escape Room; visiting The Boardroom in Burlington; playing lawn games on the UVM green; spending the evenings playing Jackbox Games, Dance Dance Revolution, and more!

All About Place: Making Local and Global Connections

Join Professors Noah Barclay-Derman, Deb Hinchey, and the Global Connections Team as we explore place, resilience, and connections in two of our favorite areas in Vermont! On the first day, we will explore Winooski, the most diverse community in Vermont. We will learn about social protection, community connection, and the built environment through the lens of two different perspectives: a Multicultural Liaison for Winooski School District and Representative Taylor Small, the first and currently only transgender legislator in Vermont. The next day, we will look at social connection through nature and place, kayaking on the Waterbury Reservoir. We will explore the natural beauty and discuss the reservoir's creation to protect towns from flooding and the displacement of the original stewards of the land.

Program Highlights: Meeting community leaders working for social change; exploring the small yet mighty city of Winooski by enjoying global cuisine, touring the mill and falls, and swimming at the Myers Memorial Pool; kayaking and exploring remote sites and beaches on the Waterbury Reservoir; creating friendships and social connections that will help with your transition to a new place!

Food Production and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Do you have a love of food and an innovative spirit? If so this UVM GO experience is for you! Our group will visit a local farm known for teaching the community about growing and preparing nutritious foods. After lunch along the shore of Lake Champlain, we’ll tour the largest producer of chocolate chip cookie dough pellets for ice cream in the United States. Then, we’ll head back to campus and set up our own fermented food product.... KOMBUCHA! Day Two will find you visiting some local small scale food businesses, making your own batch of sauerkraut, touring of an award-winning brewery, and finishing off the day at Burlington's own Generator Space where artists, craftspeople and innovators spend their time honing their skills.

Program Highlights: Touring several area food producers including Zero Gravity, Pitchfork Pickles, Brio Coffeeworks, and Rhino Foods; visiting Common Roots Farm; enjoying a picnic at the beach; making kombucha tea; exploring the Generator makerspace; enjoying the amazing food in Burlington and on campus!

Agroecology for a More Just Society

Agroecology Professor Dr. Vic Izzo and Tom Wilson from the Office of Community-Engaged Learning will lead this hands-on workshop that introduces students to the ways our local farms and food systems-based organizations are engaging in important and effective social change. Through the lens of agroecology – an interdisciplinary approach to agriculture and food systems that works to build healthy, sustainable, and just human and environmental ecosystems – students will examine the food system as catalyst for, and reflection of, meaningful social and environmental change. We will engage directly with community partners and local nonprofits to build relationships in our community!

Program Highlights: Visiting farms and meeting with farmers implementing agroecological practices; assisting UVM researchers with field work and data collection on agroecosystems; engaging with nonprofits that connect various parts of our food system; enjoying local and seasonal food!

Dive In! Exploring Lake Champlain’s Global Role (with PLHC)

The Liberal Arts Scholars Program and the Patrick Leahy Honors College are offering a two-day exploration of Lake Champlain! You’ll join Dr. Devin McFadden and LASP’s Cathy Diamond as you step up your knowledge of this incredible body of water sitting at the foot of the hill in downtown Burlington. Battles, shipwrecks, scientific discoveries, Hollywood movies, border crossings, and a legendary creature named Champ—we’ll hear about Lake Champlain’s storied past and critical role in the future. Pack a swimsuit and join the search for Champ!

Program Highlights: touring UVM’s lakefront research lab; open-water rowing in hand-crafted longboats (no experience necessary); visiting the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum; having lunch on a cruise boat; visiting an archaeological dig site; building community on and off campus.

Outdoor Experience I

Healing Ecology

Join Community Herbalist and Plant & Soil Science Faculty member Katherine Elmer in exploring the concepts from Becky Chambers’ book Psalm of the Wild-Built through the context of “healing ecology.” Healing ecology explores the ways that nature immersion, particularly with medicinal plants, has healing effects on humans, and that humans can reciprocate by participating in restoring the ecology through ancestral, indigenous gardening and stewardship practices. Acknowledgment of the first peoples of this land will be centered through discussions with community members who identify as indigenous and/or are allies to the Abenaki rematriation process.

Program Highlights: Medicinal plants walks and wild-crafting; restoration ecology service project at Shelburne Farms; permaculture gardening with Indigenous Elders at Ethan Allen Homestead; making and tasting herbal teas, swimming in Lake Champlain; removing edible invasive species with recipes and tastings; hiking green spaces in the Burlington area; discussion of Psalm of the Wild-Built (First Year Book)

Outdoor Experience II

Exploring UVM’s Natural Areas

From the top of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak, to an 80-acre urban forest in Burlington, UVM’s natural area reserve system offers an ideal outdoor classroom to better understand the complex socio-ecological fabric that makes up our world today. Dr. Brendan Fisher and Dr. Noelia Barrios-Garcia, professors in the Rubenstein School, will bring you to some of these natural areas to explore the social history, ecological communities, and the roles these areas play for human and ecological well-being. Uncover these vibrant spaces of academic research, community stewardship, and environmental education.

Program Highlights: Hiking Mount Mansfield; learning to identify native and non-native plants; birding; attending natural history talks; undertaking a small ecological restoration project; collecting ecological data; community building.

Program Highlights: touring UVM’s lakefront research lab; open-water rowing in hand-crafted longboats (no experience necessary); visiting the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum; having lunch on a cruise boat; visiting an archaeological dig site; building community on and off campus.

Dive In! Exploring Lake Champlain’s Global Role (with LASP)

The Patrick Leahy Honors College and the Liberal Arts Scholars Program are offering a two-day exploration of Lake Champlain! You’ll be accompanied by Associate Dean Dr. Ian Grimmer as you step up your knowledge of this incredible body of water sitting at the foot of the hill in downtown Burlington. Battles, shipwrecks, scientific discoveries, Hollywood movies, border crossings, and a legendary creature named Champ—we’ll hear about Lake Champlain’s storied past and critical role in the future. Pack a swimsuit and join the search for Champ!

Program Highlights: touring UVM’s lakefront research lab; open-water rowing in hand-crafted longboats (no experience necessary); visiting the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum; having lunch on a cruise boat; visiting an archaeological dig site; building community on and off campus.

Sustainability I

Exploring Sustainability in Our Local Food System

Join Professor Teresa Mares and the Sustainability Team in this hands-on exploration of sustainable and local food systems in Vermont! We will visit two local farms to see how they engage in sustainability practices and education, followed by an onsite farm-based lunch. These visits will cover a variety of practices, including small-scale dairy production, cheesemaking, diversified agriculture, and sustainable grazing practices. The next day, we’ll volunteer at Vermont Youth Conservation Corps and directly contribute to their community initiatives from harvesting to packaging produce. We will also tour Maple Wind Farm and learn about regenerative agricultural practices (and meet the farm animals!) For dinner, we will cook a delicious meal - using ingredients gathered at our farm visits - at the UVM Climate Kitchen.

Program Highlights: Volunteering with Vermont Youth Conservation Corps; visiting Shelburne Farms; Bread and Butter Farm, and Maple Wind Farm; sharing meals centered on “farm to fork” consumption; taking a cooking class in UVM’s Climate Kitchen

Sustainability II

The Importance and Diversity of Fungi in Our Forests

Professor Terry Delaney will guide you in discovering the structure and identification of mushrooms and other fungi, their roles in ecosystems, and overview safe and toxic species. Our group will travel into the local forests to collect mushrooms and learn about them in their environment. After lunch on the road and maybe a dip in the lake, we will bring a collection of specimens back into the lab to prepare spore prints for further study. We’ll have the opportunity to explore our collections, both macroscopically and using microscopes, collecting images along the way. If we collect edible species, we may prepare a tasting session to experience some of the varieties of edible fungi!

Program Highlights: Foraging for fungi in local forests; swimming and hiking at Niquette Bay State Park; examining collected specimens in UVM’s Plant Biology Lab; printing images of specimens; preparing and sampling edible fungi in your Learning Community’s kitchen

Wellness Environment I

WEventure: Building a Healthy Brain

Learn how a healthy brain can help you not just survive but thrive at UVM! Start each day with yoga on the Central Campus Residential Hall green, hike Mount Philo (a local landmark with stunning views of the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain), visit Shelburne Farms to explore the early history and present-day stewardship of the land, attend a crash course on building a healthy brain with Professor of Psychiatry Dr. William Copeland, and enjoy a beach day at Burlington Surf Club where we can kayak, paddle board, and enjoy the natural beauty of Burlington. Your Wellness

Environment Team and Dr. Andy Rosenfeld, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, will guide the group in conversations and experiences related to well-being and healthy transitions. We’ll conclude with a lakeside sunset dinner and reflection.

Program Highlights: Hiking Mount Philo; walking tour and indigenous history discussion at Shelburne Farms; trying some paddle sports on Lake Champlain at the Burlington Surf Club; closing dinner at Hula event space

Wellness Environment II

Mindfulness, Compassion, and Planetary Health

Join Lili Martin and Rebecca Nagle, Professors from the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, to learn the science behind stress management strategies and explore easily applied practices that promote wellness. Participants will reflect on the interconnection between human health and that of non-human species and the planet, and examine the impact stress has on disease processes, mental health, well-being, and professional burnout. We’ll encourage students to consider a variety of ways to promote well-being for all. Plan for two full days of interactive, mostly outdoor activities on Lake Champlain in partnership with local business and community organizations, concluding with a lakeside sunset dinner and reflection.

Program Highlights: Paddle boarding and other water sports at Burlington Surf Club, exploring the practices of Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing), yoga, Nia, meditation and reflective practice; examining the connection between the arts and well-being; preparing food as culinary medicine; closing dinner at Hula event space