GENERAL INFORMATION
12 students with diverse backgrounds from grades 9 – 12 and
postgraduate year will form the group
Students typically come from a variety of educational and
geographic backgrounds, from public and independent high
schools to home education, and from Vermont to California.
Vermont Semester Program students should:
- Be self motivated
- Love the wilderness and want to learn how to live
respectfully on the land
- Be ready to adopt a simple lifestyle with simplified
personal needs
- Desire challenges and opportunities for pushing
their limits
- Be generous, tolerant and community minded
- Be consistent hard worker with strong work ethics
- Be able to live away from home for six months
You do not need to be an expert cross-country skier, canoeist or
wilderness traveler, because this program is about learning! You
do need to be open to the challenge of working and training
hard, willing to live a simple lifestyle with minimal possessions,
and prepared to learn the new skills that will allow you to do
these things comfortably, safely, and happily.
We live and work as a family, each member of the group working
from his/her strengths. By design this is a small program.
Students receive individual attention from course instructors
and follow a study plan specific to their needs.
SAFETY
Core semester program teachers are certified Wilderness First
Responders, with many years’ experience in prevention and
treatment of wilderness medical issues. Common sense and
experience combined with careful expedition planning and
education of students are our main ways of preventing the need
for medical care.
- Our Trollhaugen Farm base camp is 100 acres of woods,
hills and streams in Newfane, VT. Meals, classes and living
will take place in traditional homes modeled after indigenous
designs from Scandinavia to Mongolia. All heating
and cooking is done by wood stove. Human waste is composted
thermophilically and the rich humus returned to the
soil. All electricity is provided through solar panels.
- Our northern base-camp utilizes the land and facilities of
the North Woods Stewardship Center in East Charleston,
VT. Through programs with students of all ages the center
works to foster knowledge of, and stewardship for, natural
and human communities.
- On the trail our layover facilities will range from local
families’ homes and farms to ski centers. One of our layover
hosts is Sterling College in Craftsbury, VT., where
knowledgeable professors and vast academic resources will
be available for students.
1. Send in completed application with student project (see the
“Checklist” included in this mailing. )
2. If your application and project show this program would be right
for you, we will contact you for an interview.
3. If your interview is successful you will be given provisional
acceptance to the program. Congratulations! At this point we are
planning on having you as a student. We will mail you an acceptance
packet, including the financial contract. A non-refundable deposit
of $2,000 will hold your place.
4. Because of the nature of the Vermont Semester, you will be required
to come on a shorter Kroka trip before the semester starts as the
final step after provisional acceptance. This will give us a chance
to relate in a setting similar to that of the semester and you will
have an understanding of how we will be living on the trail. In
the acceptance packet will be list of qualifying summer programs
and options if you cannot come to a summer program. Financial aid
will be made available to semester applicants.
5. When all goes well with this trip, you will be fully accepted
for the semester program. (If, because of the trip, Kroka instructors
or you decide the semester isn’t the right program for you, the
$2,000 deposit will be returned in full.)
Kroka is founded on the important principle of not denying anyone
admission to programs because of financial reasons.
- We have a sliding scale fee based on family income.
- In addition to the sliding scale fee there is financial aid available for qualified students.
- You may be eligible for public school funding. Please call us for details.
- Last year one of the students raised over half of his tuition through small $25 donations. We have a fundraising support package with ideas on how to accomplish this that can be mailed upon request.
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The Vermont Semester
is a partner with
Sterling College,
the North Woods Stewardship
Center, and
Catamount Trail Association
The Vermont Semester is sponsored by Badger®
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