​As we travel across the province together, we make a point of walking softly ​— leaving as small an ecological footprint as possible. With this in mind, we teach students how to travel around the city in sustainable ways and reduce waste production. We also introduce students to people who have devoted their lives to living gently on the earth.​

On the flip side, we try our best to leave a HUGE impact on the people and organizations we work with by volunteering our time and energy to give back to our community. We offer several experiences to work in farms and gardens, collect data for field research, build bird and bat boxes, clean up campsites and do whatever we can to give back to the people who provide expertise to our class. In these volunteer experiences, our students often build a skill set that allows them to go on to travel, work with animals, conduct research and find their own way to walk softly on the earth.

Independence, Responsibility and Respect

At the heart of all our experiences is the philosophy of helping young people develop independence, responsibility and respect.​

We strongly believe that when young people are trusted with a high degree of responsibility for their own learning, they are capable of high achievement in academics, self-directed learning, communication with adults, effective time management and much more. The independence we offer our students allows them to learn about their strengths and weaknesses, pushes them to grow from their experiences, and creates an environment of trust and respect.

Throughout the program, the theme of respect becomes an important idea for us to understand as we look at our relationships with the environment, the community and each other.