Majoring in sustainable community development
Grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Keeps busy with school, bartending, rock climbing, and making big plans for the future
Travis Sherlin entered Northland College as a freshman with a healthy addiction for exploration and a strong vision for his own educational journey.
He spent several years after high school traveling throughout South America and Central Asia, working with nonprofit organizations in Uruguay and Chile as well as attending film school in Thailand.
The EcoLeague program exists for students such as Travis who seek, in his words, “an opportunity to get outside of your world and suck the marrow out of life.”
Travis would have liked to fit all six EcoLeague schools into his degree plan. He chose three: his home school Northland College; Prescott College in Arizona in 2014; and Dickinson College in Pennsylvania in 2015.
“EcoLeague increases your course catalog by five hundred new classes,” he said.
One of Travis’ favorite memories of EcoLeague comes from his glimpse into the experiential education atmosphere of Prescott College: “During my month-long Introduction to Rock Climbing block course in Arizona, we climbed a five-pitch face that had a two-hundred-foot free rappel at the top.”
This journey up the side of a mountain rewarded Travis with a view over the entirety of the Cochise Stronghold, a world-famous climbing destination.
Having returned to Northland for his senior year, Travis is now working simultaneously on a full class load, his senior capstone project, and an internship with the UW Extension office working on the ten-year update for the Ashland County Comprehensive City Plan, with plans to graduate this winter with a degree in sustainable community development.
He takes his experiences with him in every aspect of his busy days, drawing on moments during his Social Justice Education Semester in Tucson that forced him to truly “face [himself] as an individual and confront the impact of [his] existence.”
While Travis might not have had any reservations about launching himself into a new school in a completely new place and atmosphere, he has encouraging words for anyone considering an EcoLeague exchange: “Change can be scary and uncomfortable but it’s absolutely worthwhile. Growth only happens in times of discomfort. All of the schools in the EcoLeague are so incredible, its easy to find home wherever you land.”