Cascadia: The Cascadia Bioregion encompasses all or portions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, British Columbia, and Alberta. Bioregions are geographically based areas defined by land or soil composition, watershed, climate, flora, and fauna. The Cascadia Bioregion claims the entire watershed of the Columbia River (as far as the Continental Divide), as well as the Cascade Range from Northern California well into Canada.
Academy: A place of study or training in a special field
Cooperative Learning: A process that involves students working in teams to accomplish a common goal, under conditions that promote positive interdependance, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, appropriate use of collaborative skills, and group processing.
Service Learning: Service learning is defined as a “course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility”
Initiative: The ability to assess and initiate things independently, the power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do, an act or strategy intended to resolve a difficulty or improve a situation; a fresh approach to something.
These definitions could shed some light on the intent of this project as they embody much of what the Academy will stand for and work towards. Student academic workload will be divided between three main fields; emergency response, campus operations, and their own field of study. By splitting the workload between cooperative learning and facilitated independant study it is our hope to create a fertile learning environment that gives to students as much as it asks from them. It is our goal to create an experience which teaches the value of community as well as the individual.
While the faculty and staff body will operate as emergency response coordinators and emergency response support staff; visiting faculty will provide support for the independanct acadmic study portion with key pre-requisite courses being taught by permanent or semi permanent faculty of an academic, rather than emergency response or campus services, nature. We seek to establish a strong collaborative relationship with regional colleges and universities to provide By seeking sponsorship from regionally located universities in the form of visiting faculty we will be able to provide a richer learning environment at minimal cost while providing an excellent public relations opportunity to Colleges and Universities which do not feel they have the ability or resources to manage their own Student Emergency Response Scholorship Programs. Their desire to support such a powerful initiative is easily fulfilled by providing one or more faculty for our academic program and we are confident that there are many faculty throughout the region who would eagerly jump at the opportunity to support us.
Through intensive group learning via our Emergency Response and Campus Operations programs we seek to build our students professional and interperonal skills while providing real world, resume worthy work experiences. Our facilitated independant study program will focus on the interests and desires of each student. By supporting the academic interests of each student individually it is our hope that students will exhibit greater vigor and drive in their pursuit of acadmic growth. Our Academy seeks to teach our students that each individual depends on their community and that each community depends on it's individuals. Through this unique acadmic program we provide our students, staff, and faculty with the chance to not just teach or learn something but to live the something they are teaching or learning.
Undergraduate students will pursue 12 credits per quarter, 4 quarters a year. 3 credits for emergency services and training, 3 credits for campus operations services and training, and 6 credits of independant academic learning. It is our hope that graduate students will make up our emergency services staff as well as academic support staff. Campus and emergency services support staff could consist of our culinary program, business program, and/or a shorter term program at the school made up of technical programs or some other group at the acadmey (this is yet to be decided).
It would be in our interest to build a large guest faculty program with faculty from regional colleges and univsersities as well as a robust part-time and volunteer faculty program made up of retired and semi retired instructors and professors.
More to come.
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http://www.cascadianow.org/cascadia-bioregionalism/
http://drsticks.com/Edcational_Definitions.html
http://www.iupui.edu/~solctr/internship-assistance/getting-started/glossary-of-experiential-education-terms/
https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&q=define+inititative&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7ADFA_en#hl=en&sa=X&pwst=1&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&rlz=1I7ADFA_en&q=initiative&tbs=dfn:1&tbo=u&ei=jPfYT8iNK4bYigfT8cSzAw&ved=0CGIQkQ4&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=d7feccefbee245af&biw=1366&bih=628
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