News
Stories and events from our education network
October 7, 2024
Shelburne Farms: “In BCL, The City is Both Classroom and Curriculum”
Burlington City & Lake begins its 13th semester of immersive, place-based learning for high school juniors and seniors. The program uses the city as both classroom and curriculum in pursuit of understanding what it means for a community to thrive. Students spend several full days each week off-campus talking with the people that call their city home, consulting with officials and community leaders, exploring streets and parks, learning the history of various neighborhoods, immersing in cultures, and reflecting on their experiences through creative and investigative projects. Along the way, young people develop a sense of care for Burlington—and themselves—as citizens and community members.
May 17, 2023
Press Release: Introducing Shelburne Farms and UVM’s New Education for Sustainability Graduate Programs
Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools and the University of Vermont have partnered to offer two innovative Education for Sustainability (EFS) graduate certificates for practicing educators. These new certificate programs combine Shelburne Farms’ international reputation for EFS professional learning with UVM’s research capacity, land-grant mission, and track record of high-quality teacher education. Shelburne Farms and UVM have a long history of collaboration, and in 2014, co-founded the Greater Burlington Regional Center of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development. The local network is among 155 RCEs worldwide, a designation awarded by the United Nations University for the area’s groundbreaking EFS programs. The new certificates are another example of the ongoing innovation within the RCE.
June 6, 2022
Shelburne Farms: “Hopeful Stories from Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability”
Supporting refugees. Combating climate change. Creating more inclusive communities. Among this year’s Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability projects, you’ll find youth and educators striving to make positive change and address some of our world’s biggest challenges. In Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability, youth-adult teams develop and implement projects to address the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in their own communities. The yearlong program pairs these students and educators with coaches from the Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools and UP for Learning.
January 26, 2021
Press Release: Burlington City & Lake Semester Wins Global Innovation Award
Burlington City & Lake Semester has been recognized as an Outstanding Flagship Project in Education for Sustainable Development by the Global RCE Centre, a program of United Nations University. RCE Awards celebrate local projects all around the world that are helping to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The award was presented to the Greater Burlington Regional Center of Expertise (RCE) in Education for Sustainable Development. This network of educators, researchers, students, non-profits, government leaders, businesses, and sustainability practitioners supported the creation of BCL in 2018 and continue to support its success today. The lead partners of the Greater Burlington RCE are Shelburne Farms and the University of Vermont. See UVM’s story on this award.
October 10, 2019
Shelburne Farms: “What World do YOU Want in 2030?”
On the morning of October 10, 2019, more than 175 students from twelve schools across Vermont arrived at the Coach Barn to participate in the annual Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability Program. The program challenges teams of students to make a difference in their communities by tackling a project to address one of the 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals at the local level.
December 4, 2019
“Human Health and the Environment in Burlington Through Time”
GBSEN hosted a Burlington Geographic presentation at the Main Street Landing Film House on Wednesday, December 4th, Human Health and the Environment in Burlington Through Time.
September 23–25, 2019
The 8th RCE Americas Meeting Hosted by GBESN
Shelburne Farms, the University of Vermont, and the City of Burlington were honored to host 31 participants from 11 RCEs representing five nations across South, Central, and North America. Hosting the international event allowed us to elevate and highlight the Greater Burlington region’s work in Education for Sustainability. Delegates learned about how educators here teach about sustainability. This included visits with students in the Burlington City & Lake Semester at Burlington High School, an exploration of Shelburne Farms’ Cultivating Pathways project at the Coach Barn, and more. The meeting also showcased a range of innovative sustainability initiatives, such as sustainable food systems, and featured Burlington’s commitment to becoming a sustainable city.
For more about the meeting: read the organizer’s event summary, visit Shelburne Farms’ blog, see an archive of the Global RCE Network’s story, or explore the agenda on the event webpage
Watch WCAX’s preview of this event including an interview with Jen Cirillo of Shelburne Farms
Read Burlington City & Lake Semester’s blog for students’ perspectives on the gathering and sustainability
April 13–21, 2019
SDG Week
“The week of April 13-21, 2019 has been officially designated as SDG Week in our region. During SDG Week, educators, students, non-profits, government leaders and agencies, businesses, and community members will be working together to promote the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.”
Events included:
April 11: “Social Justice + Sustainability: How Are They Connected?” Lecture by Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams. 6:30 – 8:30 PM. Livak Ballroom, Davis Center.
April 13: “Resilience: Vision for a New America.” Film screening followed by Q&A with Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams. 3:30 – 5:30 PM. Looking at human rights under threat in the current political climate in the US, this film portrays diverse individuals in a country undergoing an enormous identity crisis.
April 14: “Making Eugenics Visible: A Van Tour of the Queen City and Her Connections.” 1 - 4 PM A bus tour which will leave from Gateway Plaza in South Burlington. Join Judy Dow, local educator, artist and scholar, as she tells the story of French Indian Burlington in the 1920s and 1930s. We’ll visit Tammany Hall, The Ten Commandments, the Old Beehive, the Home for Friendless Mothers, Moccasin Village and other Burlington sites relevant to this period of time. Limit 17 participants- that is the capacity of the King Street Bus.
April 15: Centennial Woods Natural Area Bio-Blitz.
April 17: “Uncovering the Untold Story: A Community Conversation.” 3:30- 4:30 PM at Champlain Elementary School. How can we integrate indigenous ways of being and knowing across the curriculum authentically and with relevance? We need to break down the barriers of political correctness, presumptions, miseducation and fear in order to tell a more inclusive, culturally appropriate and complete story of place. Who are the missing voices? What is the untold story of the land? Join us for an informal conversation amongst educators that surfaces our fears and hopes and threads meaning through time. This is the beginning of a conversation we all need to have that may spark a needed change in what and how we teach. Community Conversation hosts: Judy Dow, Abenaki descent educator, Aziza Malik, 5th grade teacher at Champlain Elementary and Shelburne Farms educators Aimee Arandia Østensen and Kestrel Plump.
April 2018
GBSEN Afternoon Gathering
Hosted by the Rubenstein School, UVM Sustainability Faculty Fellows Program, and Shelburne Farms
Location: ArtsRiot, 400 Pine Street, Burlington, Vermont
The Greater Burlington Sustainability Education Network (GBSEN) invites educators, researchers, leaders, and community members from across the Burlington area to attend an engaging afternoon of connection, conversation, and networking. The goal of this gathering is to explore how we can promote the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, both locally and globally, and strengthen partnerships within our emerging network.
In addition to helping spark sustainability connections and exciting new learning opportunities throughout the Burlington area, the afternoon gathering will feature a presentation by a group of four UVM students who have been interviewing sustainability leaders throughout our community.
ArtsRiot, with its mission of destroying apathy through community engagement, is an ideal setting to convene this “sustainability mixer.” Light fare will be provided, and stimulating conversation is guaranteed. So come join us after work on April 18th, and we’ll see what emerges!
December 9, 2018
Shelburne Farms: “United Nations University Recognizes Innovative Education Project”
Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability, an educational initiative of two teachers and Shelburne Farms, was recently recognized as a “Flagship Project” by the United Nations University for its contributions to Quality Education, one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
March 2018
Post Hurricane Solidarity Trip to Puerto Rico
A team of eight volunteers representing the Great Burlington Sustainability Education Network traveled to Puerto Rico over Spring Break to assist with ongoing hurricane relief efforts there. Much of the island was severely impacted by Hurricane Maria on September 20th, and many farms, forests, and communities were devastated. Ongoing relief efforts have been making a big difference, but six months later there continues to be a tremendous amount of work to be done.
The GBSEN team, which included Walter Poleman, Kimberly Wallin, Tatiana Abatemarco, and Tatiana Gladkikh from the Rubenstein School, partnered with Centro para la Conservación del Paisaje to work in solidarity with Puerto Ricans as they restored watersheds, farms, and structures in communities that surround El Yungue National Forest in the northeastern part of the island.
Our partners in Puerto Rico are in the process of preparing an application to become an RCE, the first in the Caribbean!
November 1, 2016
Shelburne Farms: “Finding inspiration from our international network of educators”
By Anne Bijur. “In this challenging time for those concerned about climate change, diversity, and multiculturalism, it is heartening that Shelburne Farms is part of a thriving international network of organizations working to build a sustainable future on a global level. In October, that network became very tangible -- and inspiring -- to me when I attended the United Nations Regional Centers of Expertise Conference of the Americas in Curitiba, Brazil. Together with colleagues from Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Canada, the United States, and Brazil, we spent five days sharing with and learning from each other’s work.”
May 19, 2020
Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability Recognized in UN Publication
Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability and GBSEN were recognized in the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability report, RCE Contributions to a More Sustainable World: Celebrating Five Years of Innovative Projects on Education for Sustainable Development (2015–2019). (Cultivating Pathways starts on p. 12.)
“Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability has resulted in an overall increase in student and teacher engagement in using the SDGs to inform curriculum and student projects in the region…The project has led to tools and resources being developed for both educators and students to develop action plans and projects related to addressing the SDGs at the local level. To date, more than 100 student projects have been created addressing sustainability issues in schools and communities in the Greater Burlington region, two events have been held each year of the project for student-educator gatherings to launch new projects and share the results of completed ones, and there has been a general increase in student-led workshops and presentations on sustainability in general and the SDGs in particular throughout the region.”
Vermont’s Greater Burlington Region received official designation as a Regional Center of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development by the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies of Sustainability. See UVM’s story on this designation.