Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center now has a free and public charging station for electric vehicles! Located in our Learning Center parking lot, our ChargePoint station is free for the community to use every day of the week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Current Merry Lea master’s student Michael Miller describes his journey to become an environmental educator, and provides reflections and insights into one of his favorite ecosystems at Luckey’s Landing.

After seven years of service to Merry Lea, Joel will be departing Merry Lea to serve as the director of the graduate program at Teton Science School in Jackson Hole, Wyo. We sat down with Joel for an interview, which illustrates how he deepened Merry Lea’s programs in developing leaders in environmental education and sustainability.

Tom Hartzell first arrived at Merry Lea in 2011 as a master’s student and joined the Merry Lea team upon graduation. After 10 years of service, Tom will be departing Merry Lea for new adventures in Grand Rapids, Mich. We had a conversation with Tom about his time at Merry Lea, which offer wonderful reflections and hope for the future as we say a bittersweet goodbye.

Merry Lea is partnering with BABE of Whitley County to help support the wellbeing of families with young children. Merry Lea now offers coupons to those who are part of the BABE program when they participate in one of Merry Lea’s outdoor programs, events or activities, which can be redeemed at the BABE of Whitley County store for various infant/toddler items.

In celebration of Honoring the Headwaters: 10 Years of SLS, we had a conversation with three alumni from the Sustainability Leadership Semester (SLS).

Carol Good-Elliott, longtime environmental educator at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College was awarded the Howard Michaud Award from the Environmental Education Association of Indiana (EEAI) for her lasting commitment in the field of environmental education.

As students take courses at Merry Lea, work on applied projects and go on weekly field trips to meet local stakeholders, thematic connections to water and the watershed are woven throughout to help frame the SLS program. So, of all the ways to frame sustainability, why is water the backbone of the SLS program?

Read students’ perspectives on how they are experiencing leadership development and new understandings of sustainability in the Sustainability Leadership Semester.

“And just as water crosses human boundaries freely, students quickly realize that sustainability challenges require thinking across disciplines and other barriers that often prevent people from working together.” Professor Jonathon Schramm wrote about how the Sustainability Leadership Semester is thematically framed, with reflective insights from a 2015 SLS participant.