The School for Field Studies

Overview

The School for Field Studies (SFS) provides a unique opportunity for environmentally committed students from the United States and abroad to learn skills and gain experience that future environmental leaders will need to effect change locally, nationally and internationally. SFS trains US and host-country students to conduct the kind of interdisciplinary, field-based environmental research that resource dependent communities all over the world need in order to survive and prosper.

Mission

To work with local community stakeholders to develop models for the sustainable management of their natural resources; and to provide students with a unique and challenging educational and life experience that assists them in successfully advancing their careers as skilled professionals and globally aware citizens.

Program

SFS works in partnership with local communities to find solutions to real, not academic, environmental problems. Field research projects are requested and sponsored by community clients who participate in joint environmental management and conservation projects.

Australia: Tropical Rainforest Studies
Costa Rica: Sustainable Development Studies
Kenya: Wildlife Mangement Studies
Mexico: Conserving Marine Mammals & Coastal Ecosystems
Turks & Caicos Islands: Marine Resource Studies

Impact

With a focus on community based natural resource management, SFS students and faculty effect meaningful change through their cooperative involvement with the host communities in which they study, learn and work. These communities include: Maasai tribes in Kenya, small-scale and organic farmers in Costa Rica and Australia, and subsistence fishers in the British West Indies and Mexico.

Countries of Operation

Australia, Costa Rica, Kenya, Mexico, Turks and Caicos Islands