Vermont Summer - Solstice Project Conference

Governor Shumlin will talk with us about the challenges of climate policy and action in the political landscape and the importance of providing students with authentic experiences where they can see themselves as the next generation of climate leaders.

 

Peter Shumlin served as the 81st Governor of Vermont from 2011 to 2017. Prior to his governorship, he served in the Vermont Senate and House. During his three terms as governor, climate change and renewable energy were among his primary areas of focus. After his governorship, he served as co-director of his family business, Putney Student Travel. In 2020, Shumlin worked with Biden’s climate advisor, Gina McCarthy and Putney Student Travel to create a Youth Climate Summit at the Harvard School of Public Health. He also helped to develop a partnership with the Columbia Climate School. 

Bill will discuss the state of the climate crisis and the critical role we as educators play in helping the next generation to become informed and to feel inspired and empowered to take action.

 

Bill McKibben is a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate, democracy, and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel,’ in the Swedish Parliament. He’s also won the Gandhi Peace Award, and honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written over a dozen books about the environment, including his first, The End of Nature, published in 1989. His most recently released book is The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.

What does it mean to love a forest?
In this talk, Ethan Tapper, a forester, bestselling author and digital storyteller from Vermont, will draw from his work as a forester and his book How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World to discuss what it means to care for forests and other ecosystems at this moment in time. How do we respond to the harmful legacies of the past? How do we use our species' incredible power to heal rather than to harm? How do we reach toward a better future? In a time in which many believe that “protecting” ecosystems means protecting them from ourselves, Ethan argues that humans must take action to help ecosystems heal and to move into a more abundant future, and that to do so is an act of care and compassion – of love.

Ethan’s message is at once compassionate and pragmatic, clear-eyed and hopeful, sobering and inspiring – a powerful new vision for how we can build a world that works for all of its ecosystems and all of its people.
 
 
Ethan Tapper is a forester, digital storyteller, and the bestselling author of How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World. For more than a decade, Ethan has been recognized as a thought-leader in the world of ecosystem stewardship, winning numerous regional and national awards for his work. More recently, he has been recognized as a writer – since its publication in 2024, How to Love a Forest has been named the winner of the 2025 New England Book Award for nonfiction, and received international acclaim.
Ethan’s message of relationship, responsibility and hope reaches millions of people each year through his writing, social media channels with hundreds of thousands of followers, and the hundreds of walks, talks and keynotes that he delivers across North America each year.
Ethan works, writes, hunts, birds and runs a small consulting forestry business from his home at Bear Island – his 175-acre working forest, homestead, orchard and sugarbush in Vermont – and plays in his punk band, The Bubs.

Is Your School Ready to Kick Butt on Climate? Welcome to the Solstice Project.

The climate crisis is the defining challenge of the 21st Century. Schools must no longer relegate climate teaching to week 7 of an environmental science course, nor pretend to tackle this vast challenge with composting bins. The Solstice Project brings together schools who are centering climate—at the very heart of their approach to education—on these three pillars:

(1) Centering Climate Curriculum. Solstice Project schools recognize that the climate crisis deserves cross-disciplinary, four-year treatment—both on and off campus.

(2) Clean Electrification. Solstice Project schools recognize that solving the climate crisis means eliminating fossil fuels—by sourcing clean electricity (including rooftop solar), and using it to electrify their heating/cooling, cooking, and vehicle fleets.

(3) Creative Capital. Solstice Project schools can do tremendous good by leveraging their capital to build climate solutions, rather than prop up fossil fuels.

By taking bold action in these three pillars, Solstice Schools can mitigate climate risk, clean their air, improve learning outcomes, save energy costs, and help inspire a new generation of climate leaders.  

Zach grew up surrounded by the wild lands, abundant seas, and retreating glaciers of Alaska. He undertook multiple research expeditions to the polar seas, the world's fastest warming places, ultimately earning his doctorate from Stanford University. Making the leap from climate science to climate action, Zach hiked and paddled 2300 miles home to Alaska to found Tidelines Institute, an education and leadership nonprofit, where he now serves as co-executive director.

Traveling to places that challenge one’s outlook is a crucial step in a person’s spiritual, intellectual, and personal growth. Trips that expose travelers to the language, culture, people, and ecology of a new community, expand students’ ideas about how to live and how to be a global citizen. Communities and ecosystems all around the world are increasingly feeling the impacts of climate change. Everywhere I travel, people are eager to discuss what’s happening and what we can do about it. In this talk, I hope to share ideas about how student travel experiences can center the climate conversation in a powerful way that helps students feel connected to a global community of concerned citizens who are ready to take action.

 

Liz Jackson is the founder of GOGI Abroad, an organization devoted to the transformative power of experiential learning, cultural humility, and environmental stewardship. Her work is grounded in the belief that travel—when approached with empathy and intention—expands not only a student’s worldview but their sense of responsibility to people and planet.

Liz’s passion began with her own life-changing experience studying abroad as a teenager, a journey that reshaped her understanding of connection, purpose, and global citizenship. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Lesley University and brings over fifteen years of experience teaching Spanish and designing immersive educational programs that bring learning to life.

Through GOGI Abroad, Liz creates programs that immerse students in language, culture, and meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities and diverse cultures around the world. She believes it is essential for young people to witness how tribal and traditional communities steward the earth—with reciprocity, respect, and sustainability woven into daily life. By learning directly from these cultures, students deepen their awareness of interconnectedness and return home more conscious of their impact.

Liz brings to her work the compassion of a mother, the steadiness of an educator, and the conviction that meaningful travel fosters empathy, resilience, and ethical leadership. She feels most at home guiding students through the beautiful discomfort of growth—where cultural understanding expands, sustainability becomes personal, and transformation quietly unfolds.

Full Program: $1500 includes a full week of programming, lodging (double room), meals, and field trips. 

Family/Friends: $750 covers family members or friends & includes meals and shared lodging, but no programming.

Single Room: $500 additional fee for participants who would like to reserve a single room. 

We encourage all participants to come prepared to share the work they are doing at their schools, the successes they are celebrating, and the challenges they are facing. We will offer presentations, discussion groups, and Design Thinking-inspired workshops to help every participant develop strategies for moving through the challenges in order to move closer to our vision of a more sustainable world. 

We ask that all participants commit to our shared celebration of “propinquity.” We will use phones, laptops, and other tech when necessary, but we want to focus on being fully present for one another, actively listening and learning from each other, and documenting our shared ideas with good old-fashioned pen and paper while we are together.    

Vermont Academy is located in the village of Saxtons River, Vermont in the foothills of the Green Mountains. Our 450-acre campus offers miles of hiking and biking trails through extensive forests and fields. 

For GPS directions, please use 10 Long Walk, Saxtons River, VT, 05154.

Nearby airports include Boston Logan, Hartford CT, Manchester NH. 

Aim to arrive between noon and 4pm on Sunday, June 14, and plan to depart after breakfast on Saturday, June 20. 

June in Vermont includes warm days, cool nights, and always a chance of rain. We will spend a good deal of our time outdoors at this conference.

Be sure to pack layers and bring a good pair of hiking boots. 

If you enjoy biking, swimming, kayaking, tennis, disk golf, and other outdoor activities, please pack accordingly.

All of our facilities and outdoor spaces are open to our guests and their family members. We also have laundry facilities available if needed.  

Beyond the beautiful campus of Vermont Academy, opportunities abound for outdoor adventures! Here are just a few field trips that we will select from during our week together. The timing of our outdoor adventures will be contingent on weather conditions in order to ensure the best experience for all participants.