Dickinson College
IN-6: Center for Sustainability Across the Curriculum

In collaboration with AASHE, Dickinson has hosted workshops as a regional center since 2017. Our Valley & Ridge Faculty Development Workshops are open to undergraduate faculty from other colleges and universities to participate alongside the Dickinson faculty cohort. Faculty that are thinking about integrating social, economic and/or environmental sustainability into their undergraduate teaching are encouraged to apply, and 17-20 participants annually were accepted into the program. We have now worked with over 22 other institutions of higher education and covered disciplines such as engineering, theatre and dance, economics, Italian, and chemistry.

Valley & Ridge has annually brought together faculty members from all academic disciplines to work collaboratively to introduce and enhance sustainability content in new and existing courses across the curriculum. Sponsored by Dickinson’s Center for Sustainability Education, and now entering its 16th year, this workshop has helped over 120 Dickinson faculty and 30+ other faculty connect the subject areas of their teaching with sustainability using active learning pedagogies such as place-based & experiential education. Dickinson sustainability staff also serve as consultants to other institutions of higher education on this subject.

The Valley and Ridge project at Dickinson takes its name from the physiographic region within which the college lies, which is marked by the Allegheny Plateau to the north and west, South Mountain to the south and east, and Cumberland Valley in between. The project got its impetus from Dickinson’s participation in the Shared Futures and Sustainability Initiatives of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). The Valley and Ridge project is modeled after the Piedmont Project of Emory University and the Ponderosa Project of Northern Arizona University.

https://www.aashe.org/calendar/curriculum-workshop-dickinson-college-2024/