From Vermont to Monteverde

Field Research has been the cornerstone of our little school in the Green Mountains of Vermont--at the grassroots level inside our small rural community with its woodlands, farms and studios--to our State Capital and the Nation's Capital--to the Atlantic coast and the shores of NYC--and finally to Central America--in the capstone field work for graduating students.

This spring research trip for 22 Junior High students centers around the question: Vermont to Monteverde, How are we connected?  To unravel this question, our 7th and 8th graders have been studying international trade—focusing on coffee and tourism—and the influence of human behavior on local and global ecologies.

Raising Funds

The overall cost of the journey is approximately $38,000 which includes airfare, ground transportation, lodging, meals and activities. The students and their families have raised over $25,000 via personal contributions and fundraising. The Marlboro School Board and the Marlboro School Association (a local non-profit) has contributed another $3,000 toward the trip.

The balance of $10,000 will flow from this campaign and the continued efforts of the students and their families with event-based fundraising and these ongoing offerings:

• Rent-a-Kid— A service which gets the students out into the community helping with various chores such as stacking firewood and shoveling snow.
  
  
• Coffee sales—We sell a locally roasted, specialty coffee from Costa Rica at school while investigating the sources and process involved via a local field trip.
  
  
• Rustic Bench Raffle—In our Design Technology program we make and raffle beautiful benches made from local “rustic” materials.
  
  
• Redemption Center—We maintain a town collection center for returnable cans and bottles.

Education & Impact

Schools have always tried to foster responsible citizenry, and more than ever we must consider what it means to be a global citizen. Our middle school curriculum fosters global awareness through culture, economics and ecology. Students learn basic skills, and prepare for their the future in the best way—by being actively engaged in real world problems and solutions.

• Practice of Democracy:  Students make real decisions about the classroom, fundraising, and the parts of the curriculum using a government they chose.
  
  
• Spanish Language:  Nothing makes a foreign language more relevant than traveling. While in Central America we will be visiting schools and using the language skills we have been developing in class to get to know the people and places of Costa Rica.
  
  
• Social Studies:  From an understanding of world trade from the Silk Road to the Atlantic Slave Trade, we look specifically at the economics of the coffee & tourist trade as they connect the United States and Costa Rica.
  
  
• Ecology: Due to global warming and deforestation in the lowlands, the montane cloud forests of Monteverde are particularly vulnerable with numerous rare species threatened. This illuminates the unintended impact of human activity on ecosystems--a theme for ecology our classes.
  

Challenge & Opportunity

As a small public school we face the challenge of ever tightening budgets and ever increasing pressures to focus time and energy on testing and preparation. Because field research is an integral part of our curriculum, all students participate--no matter what contribution their families can afford.

For many, this will be their first time out of the country or their first time on a plane. Some will credit this journey for shaping a lifetime of world travel and study. Others will mark it as their single trip abroad. ALL will return home with a broader perspective of the world in which they live and a greater sense of what it means to be a global citizen.

Support from friends, adventurers and travelers like you makes this education in global citizenry possible! Small individual contributions have made a difference all along and will continue to do so.  Others are welcome to cover the costs of a targeted activity among these:

• Guided tour of a coffee farm - $168
• Guided tour of the Bat Jungle - $294
• Carbon Offset Program at the Ecolodge San Luis - $700
  
• Guided tour of the Monteverde Cloud Forest -  $850
• Zipline adventure through and above the Cloud Forest - $1155
  
  

WORLD of Mouth!

Thank you for sharing this campaign on your favorite social media sites and via email and word of mouth!