The Northeast Kingdom of Vermont: Beautiful, Rural, and Poor. Many of the youth in the Northeast Kingdom have never ventured outside its borders. They will follow in their parents’ footsteps, farming, lumbering, and scraping out a living in a region filled with beauty and unrealized geo-tourism potential. With the lowest achievement levels in Vermont, the kids of the Northeast Kingdom are locked i
n a circle. Achievement of their potential will always be hindered by economic and social issues. Many will never reach for the stars for they have always been told that their reach is limited. wants to find those kids who could make a difference – motivated, capable, interested and committed – and inspire them to break that cycle and lead the next generation of environmentalists. For students who have an interest in science and the environment, we want to get them fired up, realizing that even the son of a farmer or the daughter of a waitress can aspire to college, and promote an understanding of earth and its species, and the impact humans have on their planet. Using the drama of the African experience to break the cycle, and working with North Country Union High School to build an integrated academic program, participants will suddenly see their environment, both locally and globally, in a different way. Through a carefully planned program, they will come to understand that they can play a part. is a Vermont Non-Profit Public Benefit Company and is registered under IRS Code 501c(3)Vermont Students to Africa will utilize a three-part program to make sure that the experience of a subsidized trip to Africa is only part of an ongoing process:
1. Preparation and Application will be competitive. A trip to Africa will be a coveted experience, and the truly committed will work very hard to become part of it. Applicants will need to explain their motivation, and prove it by working with a local teacher to design a research project that will be completed during and following the trip.
2. Travel to Africa in a small group will open their eyes to a world only imagined, and two weeks of field study will expose them to a myriad of environmental and wildlife issues. They will camp and work as a team. They will experience a higher concentration of threatened animals and habitat, farmer-wildlife conflict, poaching, and species extinction, than they could in any other place in the world.
3. Project completion and reporting back to their Vermont communities will keep the participants engaged long after the trip is done. Telling of their work and experience in Africa will be welcomed enthusiastically by teachers and students in schools, social service groups, and media events. They will have the satisfying and esteem-building experience of being important witnesses to a world few others have seen. By the time they are done, these Northeast Kingdom students will already be playing roles of leadership in educating others. And upon successful completion of their commitments, they will receive academic credit from North Country Union High School for the entire experience.
