Highlights
- New Program at Kibbutz Lotan!
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I want to go to Lotan! What is the Green Apprenticeship?
See below for information on the 5 month program starting in Feburary 2010 and semester abroad option (this one is for college credit).
Have 5 months? Check out the 5-month MASA* Affiliated GA, which expands upon the core curriculum:
- Local food production
- Permaculture
- Ecological design techniques
- Natural/alternative building
- Sustainable technologies – composting toilets, grey and black water purification systems, solar ovens, geodesic domes
- Community Design
- Environmental ethics
Practical work includes:
- Organic gardening – growing vegetables from scratch
- Natural and alternative building with mud, straw bales, tires, and trash
- Composting – with food scraps and with the help of worms (vermiculture)
- Permaculture design projects – ecological design from the garden and home to the workplace
- Care of EcoCampus neighborhood – maintenance and development
- Countless opportunities for individual or group eco-projects
- Hebrew language ulpan
- Culture and history of the land of Israel
- Educational trips to other areas of the country
- Connections to community members through participation in kibbutz vocations
- Volunteering in the wider Israeli community
- *Some applicants will be eligible for MASA scholarships
Want college credit? Read about our unconventional study abroad program
In all our programs, practical skills are developed through hands-on work in our environmental education center, organic garden, and alternative/natural building projects, and complemented by classroom session in such topics as ecological design, permaculture, gardening theory, and community building.
Participants are also interwoven into the daily life of our kibbutz, an intentional cooperative community based on the principles of liberal, egalitarian Judaism.
Students also have the opportunity to live what they learn on a day-to-day basis by staying in the GA EcoCampus – a prototype neighborhood for sustainable living.
Additionally, participants come from all over the world to be with like-minded individuals and create life-long connections. They leave the course brimming with information, motivation, confidence and support, and become part of the larger community of those who value ecological living.
Upon successful completion of the course work, participants will receive a Permaculture Design Course Certificate according to International Permaculture standards, as well as an Eco-village Design certificate, in accordance with Gaia Education Curriculum.
Graduates of the Green Apprenticeship integrate the skills they learn into Masters and PhD degrees in ecological subjects and as formal and informal educators. Other professional endeavors include: establishing and directing environmental NGO’s, creating a permaculture education farm, entrepreneurial efforts in the organic food industry and landscape architecture, becoming experts in natural building and carpentry, doing agricultural work in farms all over the world, and much more.
Green Apprenticeship alumni also take the knowledge they learn outside the ecological community, as the information helps develop a way of approaching systems in any field.