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Off-Campus Learning Opportunities

Off-campus programs offer students an opportunity to explore and extend their learning beyond the classroom. Experiences offered through a consortium of participating organizations and universities, study abroad and domestic travel classes, and self-directed programs allow personal enrichment as well as career enhancement for students in all fields of study.

CELL

The Center for Ecological Living and Learning (CELL) is an official Northland College partner and a nonprofit educational organization inspiring students to bring creative, systemic solutions and environmental stewardship to their individual lives and leadership positions. Students live with host families and/or in lodging run by community partners and have classes, lectures, field experiences, and service-learning opportunities in the region where their program is conducted. During the experiential-learning phases, students apply what they have learned in the classroom to real-life problems in the communities where they are studying. Programs are currently offered in Iceland, Central America and the Middle East.

Cell Student Experience

Max Metz Jr. '10, Outdoor Education – Natural History
Unjustifiably summing up my CELL experience, here is a list of opportunities I was able to be a part of: learning Spanish in a local school for two weeks, building solar panels with Nicaraguans, building solar cookers with Nicaraguans, breaking sod for new gardens in the hills of Honduras, reading many amazing books and discussing their importance with my classmates, climbing six volcanoes, sledding down one volcano, living with 12+ Central American families, picking and roasting cacao (cocoa) and making our own chocolate, patrolling beaches in search of nesting turtles in the dead of the night, and gaining a new perspective on life. The CELL (Center for Ecological Living and Learning) is the program offered by Northland. CELL is the reason I was able to leave Northland for so long and still graduate on time.

Click here to read more about Max's experience, and about other student experiences abroad.

Round River

Round River is dedicated to conservation strategies that preserve and restore wild places; to that end, they strive to develop and support traditions that sustain wildness. These efforts are anchored in the principles of conservation biology, supported by field research and community planning.

Round River semester and summer programs are entirely field-based, authentic experiences that offer the opportunity for small groups of students to contribute to actual conservation efforts in big, wild landscapes. Students from diverse backgrounds from the sciences to humanities study and work hard to immerse themselves in the ecology and culture of a place. Round River is entrenched in the places we work, dedicated to fulfill obligations to our friends and local colleagues. While on a program our students become part of this effort, and work alongside Round River researchers and instructors and members of our local partners.

Round River believes landscapes are powerful educators. Our student programs are designed to involve small groups of students with inspiring people and actual research projects that are finding and implementing solutions to real conservation issues. The student programs contribute significantly to the larger conservation initiatives of Round River and our local partners.

Currently, Round River offers programs in Namibia, Ecuador, British Columbia, & Wyoming.

For more information contact:

Alan Brew, Associate Professor of English, (715) 682-1329 or abrew@northland.edu

Eco League

The Eco League is a consortium of five colleges and universities that share missions based on environmental responsibility and social change. All of them have strong Environmental Studies, Environmental Science and Outdoor Education programs. Small classes with personal attention are emphasized at all along with experiential education that gives students real world experience. The Eco League gives students the opportunity to spend a semester at a different school to experience a different part of the country, different faculty, and different ways of thinking.

Participating Schools:

Alaska Pacific University (Anchorage, AK)
College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor, ME)
Green Mountain College (Poultney, VT)
Northland College (Ashland, WI)
Prescott College (Prescott, AZ)

How the Eco League Works

Eco League is open to students in any academic area.
Students may spend up to two non-sequential semester at other Eco League institutions during their sophomore and junior years.
Students continue to pay full-time tuition to their home institution. Lab, course fees and room and board are paid to the host institution. Travel costs are covered by the student.
Credits earned at Eco League institution are transferred back to the home institution.
Students are expected to return to their home institution after Eco League semester.

If you are a student attending another Eco League school, please see for students coming to Northland. If you are a Northland Student interested in an Eco League exchange, please see for current Northland students.

For more information contact:
Randy Lehr, Associate Professor of Biology, (715) 682-1261 or rlehr@northland.edu