The Future…
Merry Lea’s
course offerings will expand to include a summer semester with
tracks in wetlands studies and agroecology.
Up to 50 students will live together in cottages and
study in the new academic building. They will learn from each other,
forge life-long professional relationships and experience firsthand
a variety of sustainable building strategies.
Wetlands students will monitor the water quality of
the Kesling wetlands and study the ecological engine that purifies their
wastewater.
A newly hired agroecology professor will teach sustainable
methods of farming, using ecology as the starting place for the study
of agriculture. Students will grow some of their own food and supply
produce to local markets.
Students from other colleges that cannot provide comparable
fieldwork opportunities will join Goshen College students, transferring
their credits back home in the fall.
Visiting professors will live onsite in a faculty cottage,
teaching courses in their areas of expertise. Some may choose to hold
courses from their own institutions at Merry Lea.
Graduate students will spend a year at Merry Lea completing
field-based coursework in environmental education.
Merry Lea’s cutting edge facility will attract
architecture students, city planners, business owners and others who
want to learn more about sustainable building. The site will serve as
a resource for the region.
