Field Notes

Engaging the next generation of Vermont land stewards

7 min read / January 29, 2025 / By Sarah Wolfe

Place-based learning fosters environmental leadership

Schools are supporting the climate and sustainability leaders of tomorrow by giving them time on the land. Students and faculty from these Vermont place-based learning programs share why learning from their natural surroundings is a powerful tool for engaging future land stewards.

Knee-deep in environmental education

Do you know what happens to onions after a flood? Green Mountain Technical & Career Center student Felix does. They helped harvest what was left of their farm’s onions after the flooding in the summer of 2024. “The onions just basically turned into mush,” said Felix. That meant they couldn’t be part of the school’s annual fundraiser.

When flooding hit Woodstock High School in 2023, clean-up efforts were also a learning opportunity. This year, students are developing a project to plant native species along local riverbanks to combat knotweed and increase flood resilience.

That’s the power of place-based learning: to give students hands-on understanding they can’t develop in a classroom. Place-based learning cultivates student engagement and proficiency through experiential education grounded in the realities of their local communities and environment.

VLT recently brought together students and faculty from two such programs for a webinar to share learnings and challenges: Woodstock Union High School’s CRAFT (Community and Climate Resilience through Agriculture, Forestry, and Technology) Program and the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Program of the Green Mountain Technology & Career Center (GMTCC).

Teaching sustainability on the land and in the classroom

The two programs have taken different approaches to engage students. The Sustainable Ag and Food Systems Program offers an immersive, hands-on, and land-based experience for Juniors and Seniors. CRAFT is integrated into the conventional high school programming at Woodstock High School. It gives students broad exposure to the program’s themes of stewardship, sustainability, systems thinking, and service learning throughout their classes.

Sam Rowley started the GMTCC Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Program in 2016. He and his students operate a small farm on VLT’s Brewster Uplands property in Jeffersonville, Vermont. Students work on the farm every day throughout the year. They see how weather and seasons impact livestock and crops. They manage challenges like broken machinery and sick animals. The students can earn college credits despite limited time in a traditional classroom.

CRAFT co-developers Kat Robbins and Janis Boulbol spent several years developing their program before they welcomed their first cohort of students in 2021. They designed CRAFT to help students engage with their coursework at a deeper level. Participating teachers aim to get students outside and doing hands-on work with community partners. In the future, Kat and Janis hope to start a permanent learning lab at VLT’s King Farm. Juniors and Seniors will be able to spend an immersive semester working on the land.

“What CRAFT does is try to be the glue that connects different classes and experiences together,” said Kat. “At the high-school level, students are bouncing between data science and Spanish III and Economics and the Environment. It can feel like those things are disconnected.”

A learning opportunity for students seeking a deeper connection to their studies and their communities

Felix is a second-year student at GMTCC’s Sustainable Ag Program. They enrolled in the program to get out of a traditional classroom and spend more time outside. They hope to become a vet in the future.

“When I came to check the program out in my sophomore year, I had never been up close to a cow before in my life,” said Felix. Through the program, Felix learned “about their physiology, how their digestive system works, that kind of thing.” Through partnerships with area schools, they’ve shared that experience with other young Vermonters. School groups come to tour the farm and get up close to the animals.

Joaquin and Priscilla are juniors in the CRAFT program at Woodstock High School. Both see the program as a lens through which to consider their classes and future careers. Joaquin participated in Youth Lobby Day at the State House in Spring 2024. He spoke to his legislators about active environmental legislation and his concerns as a young Vermonter. Priscilla, who grew up on a dairy farm, spoke about partnering with two farmers that are working to revive the American chestnut tree using CRISPR gene editing techniques.

“We got to work with them a little bit, and go through their process and how they’re making that work,” said Priscilla. The students planted chestnut seeds in the greenhouse and are hoping to plant the seedlings at King Farm in the future.

Priscilla also pursued her interest in natural resources during an internship with the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, next door to King Farm, that she got through the CRAFT program.

Getting more students onto the land

Many attendees of the VLT-hosted webinar were interested in starting their own place-based learning programs. Faculty members Sam and Kat emphasized a key ingredient for a successful program: passion. Programs that operate outside of the traditional bounds of high school take extra work, and often extra funding.

VLT is working with the CRAFT program to fundraise for their future learning lab at King Farm. The CRAFT program has also received funding from the Rowland Foundation Fellowship and the National Park Service (Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park partially funds Kat’s position).

“Having someone whose responsibility it is to manage all of those extra logistics, like communication and coordination, is really important,” said Kat. “I don’t think the program would be quite as cohesive or successful if it were relying on teachers who already have really, really full jobs.”

Sam echoed that sentiment. “It takes teachers and people who are really passionate about what kind of program they want to create for the students to experience,” said Sam. “Quality programs like this, they cost money. Nobody likes paying extra money, but ask the students and see if it’s worth it to them. I think it is.”

The value of these programs goes beyond the individual student experience. Place-based programming gives young Vermonters a deeper appreciation of the natural environment and deeper connections to their communities.

These future land stewards will have a better understanding of how the choices we make impact the land and people around us, making them better equipped to protect them for generations to come.