A year-long residential program and learning community
Begins July 29–31, 2025
Our year-long residential Education for Sustainability Leadership Academy brings together educators committed to better aligning education toward ecological and social justice.
You'll create a peer learning community and explore Education for Sustainability (EFS), systems thinking, and leadership for transformation. In the first part of the program, we’ll use systems-thinking tools designed for transformation and apply them to your specific contexts in order to create positive changes. We’ll also dive into leadership practices that challenge and nurture us. In the second part of the program, we’ll work with strategies to develop projects that actively address systems transformation while centering equity and sustainability. Throughout, we’ll support one another with experiences that generate a sense of hope, love, and resilience.
Leadership Academy is best suited for preK–12 practicing educators and leaders, though all types of educators are welcome to apply.
Offered with the University of Vermont.
What You'll Learn
This program is best suited for those that have a strong foundation in sustainability and EFS, or teaching/leading with the interconnections of social and ecological systems in mind. Building from this base, we will explore systems thinking, leadership skills, and changemaking in order to transform learning. Together, we will:
- Apply systems thinking to analyze, adapt, and act on transforming our learning systems.
- Learn with and from the Land.
- Practice leadership skills and reflect on collective and individual agency and collaborative capacities.
- Take action on an opportunity for transformation or a “problem of practice.”
Applications are Open
To apply, please send an email to Jen Cirillo, jcirillo@shelburnefarms.org, with a response to the essay question, What is it that you want to contribute to, nurture, or heal? (750 word max.)
- We encourage and seek a diverse cohort with educators of different racial and gender identities, experience levels, and roles.
- Participant fee: $2,000. Includes course fee plus meals and accommodations. Scholarships may be available for this fee on a need-based scale. Fee does not include travel or optional graduate credits.
- Optional 6 graduate credits for an additional fee.
- Registration for this program is by application only. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the program is full, and the program is typically limited to 16 participants.
In Your Words
I wanted the support of the Leadership Academy to be able to meet people outside of my school context who can help me have thirty- or sixty-thousand foot discussions. We’re asking big questions like, how can we shift the public education system to be more inquiry-based? That’s the thing I value most, the time and space for conversations.
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Andrea EsteyJoin a learning community for retreats throughout the year at Shelburne Farms.
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Andy DubackForm a peer network of fellow educators.
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Andrea EsteyThe year-long residential program explores Education for Sustainability, systems thinking, and leadership for school transformation.
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Shelburne Farms staffAs we gather seasonally throughout the year, we tune in to what is happening around us in the natural world to reflect on our professional practice.
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Andrea EsteyThe waterfront Orchard Cove house at Shelburne Farms serves as your home base, the ideal setting for reflection and discussion.
Our Partnership with the University of Vermont
Program Overview
Leadership Academy is a year-long program with four seasonal, in-person gatherings at Shelburne Farms.
As we gather throughout the year, we tune in to what is happening around us in the natural world to reflect on our professional practice. Between each session, we meet virtually to dialogue about shared readings, reflect with a peer partner, or support a peer’s work.
The 2025–26 dates are:
- Tuesday, July 29–Thursday, July 31, 2025 (3 days)
- Friday, October 24–Saturday, October 25, 2025 (2 days)
- Thursday, January 29–Saturday, January 31, 2026 (3 days)
- Friday, May 1–Saturday, May 2, 2026 (2 days)
Click on each gathering theme to expand details.
In the summer, we take cues from the natural world and look at what is alive and growing. We experience summer on the farm, by the lake, and in the field and forest. We spend time together as a new group reflecting on: What brought me here? Where do I want to go? Who am I as a leader? What do I need to know in order to create change? We share what is alive for us as educators and leaders in our work.
In this gathering, you will:
- Consider your individual goals, hopes, and expectations.
- Build community with the Land and the group.
- Work with systems tools as a way to better understand how you might leverage change in your school or organization.
- Practice professional collaborative protocols to deepen your practice.
In the fall, we consider how you can effect positive change and what evidence of change looks like in your educational context. Again, we are inspired by our surroundings and awaken our senses to the phenological events in the fall: nature’s changing landscape and the activities of its inhabitants.
In this gathering, you will:
- Begin to reveal more of your personal practice, share your work with each other, and seek feedback and wisdom from the group.
- Deepen your practice using reflection and collaborative protocols.
- Develop a professional learning action plan.
In the winter we connect the concept of adaptation in the natural world to that of leadership practice. We explore adaptive leadership techniques that can respond to changing external conditions. Outdoors we look for patterns to use as metaphors for your work and systems map. We explore questions like: What have I been tracking? What do I need to do differently? What perspectives do I need? We dive into understanding equity, power, and privilege and practice skills for addressing these issues in our work. Getting out on the Land, we experience winter’s gifts of quiet and how stories are revealed in a different way.
In this gathering, you will:
- Reflect on your action plans and get feedback from peers who will help you consider alternative perspectives or next steps.
- Read articles on leadership practice and reflect with peers on applications for your own context.
In the spring (the close of the year-long program), we explore the concept of renewal. For your personal and professional practice we consider sustaining the practitioner in the hard work of systems change. The Land inspires us as we look for signs of animal and plant growth, rebirth, and migration.
In this gathering, you will:
- Develop a plan and share your commitment to sustainability work.
- Deepen your ability to advocate for EFS.
- Celebrate and rejuvenate!
Create Your Learning Pathway
It is expected that Leadership Academy participants will have a strong foundation in sustainability and EFS. We recommend following this sequence of EFS-focused courses:
- First, Foundations in EFS;
- Second, Immersion in EFS; and
- Third, EFS Leadership Academy.
Interested in graduate credit? Take all of these classes within the Education for Sustainability Graduate Certificate.
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