Thoreau College – Driftless Field School Program
Viroqua, Wisconsin — July 7 – August 1, 2025
The Driftless Field School program offers young adults a 4-week long immersion into the ecology, history, agriculture, and human cultures of the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin. Taking place in one of the most dynamic and busy times of the agricultural year, the Driftless Field School program is an opportunity to experience a rich tapestry of activity and life here in a ecologically and culturally vibrant corner of the rural Midwest, while in the company of a small cohort of fellow seekers and learners.
Admissions decisions will be made on a rolling basis starting on December 15.
Program Calendar and Schedule
Thoreau College strives to cultivate a harmonious balance of activities that engage head, heart, and hands across all programs and all periods of time. In practice, this means an integration of open discussions of ideas and perspectives with the arts and hands-on physical activities in all courses. A typical day at Thoreau College begins with a Morning Circle with students and faculty incorporating singing, movement activities, and announcements. The rest of the morning is devoted to a single block of class time focused on an academic topic or an artistic or manual skill workshop. Following a mid-day break, afternoons are devoted to labor activities in the greenhouse, gardens, farm, or community partners. On Friday, there is a community-wide meeting over lunch where important questions of shared governance are discussed and decided upon. Evenings and weekends are generally unscheduled, although students will have opportunities to participate in elective courses offered through the Driftless Folk School and the Thoreau College Community Seminar.
Each week of the Field School will include at least one day-long canoe-trip, hiking expedition, or field trip to important sites around the region. Many other days will feature shorter field trips to farms and natural sites as well.
Curriculum Overview
ACADEMIC COURSE: DRIFTLESS EXPLORATIONS
How can we live responsibly in a world ravaged by climate change, rampant inequality, and accelerating technological omnipresence? How can the development of ethical food systems help reconnect us to more sustainable modes of being? How can revitalizing our relationship to land help us revitalize our relationship to ourselves and our communities?
Using the unique landscapes and cultures of the Driftless Region as our classroom, this course will explore how various groups of people attempt to answer these urgent questions of how to live intentionally on and with the breaking world we’ve inherited. The Driftless Region is a place of unusual agricultural, cultural, and biological diversity and it is also a microcosm for many of the economic, environmental, and political forces impacting rural America. This class will feature perspectives grounded in many different disciplines, including geology, ecology, history, anthropology, and agriculture, and will integrate academic classroom learning with numerous field trips, craft workshops, and hands-on educational labor activities. We’ll examine a number of different approaches to sustainable and regenerative agriculture practiced by farmers in the region, as well as get to try our hand practicing some of their techniques.
Program Details
PROGRAM DATES:
The program will begin on July 7 and end on August 1, 2025. Participants should plan to arrive in Viroqua, Wisconsin no later than July 5.
HOUSING AND FOOD:
Private or shared rooms will be available for up to 15 program participants in shared houses with up to 6 residents. Weekday lunches will be provided during the program, but participants are responsible for their other meals. Students will have access to full kitchen facilities and some produce from our farm and garden operations. All houses are within a short walk of each other and of our main educational facility, the Commons.
FINANCIAL PLEDGE:
Thoreau College is committed to making our programs financially accessible to as many qualified participants as possible. The admissions process is need blind, and upon admission each new student will have a financial pledge conversation with a member of our staff to determine a contribution that makes sense for you. The financial pledge will cover program fees, housing, tools, books, arts and crafts supplies, and local transportation.
As a guide for thinking about what a reasonable contribution might be, please consider this three-tiered sliding scale:
Supporter Tier: $2,500
If you move through the world with financial ease and the means to fulfill many of your wants as well as your needs – you are able to eat out when you want, abundantly meet your needs through employment or can comfortably not work, have access to family wealth, own property, etc. – consider paying at this level, which will help us ensure the long term sustainability of our programs while keeping our offerings accessible to those with access to fewer resources.
Sustainer Tier: $2,000
If you are able to meet your needs with relative ease while budgeting your educational and entertainment spending – for instance, you are able to take classes and eat out occasionally as long as you are mindful – consider paying at this level, which will help sustain the work of the College at a modest level.
Supported Tier: $1,500
If you struggle to fund your basic needs and have limited access to resources in your family and community, or if you would not be able to access this program without a discounted payment option, consider paying at this level. We value your presence and contributions to our community and do not want any economic circumstances to be a barrier to attendance!
APPLICATION PROCESS:
Please follow this link to APPLY NOW! The application includes personal information and a couple of short essay prompts. It will also ask you for one personal reference for us to contact, preferably a teacher, professor, or employer. If it seems like you could be a good fit for the program, we will contact you to set up an interview – in person or via Zoom – with members of our admissions team, including students.
We will begin filling spots in this program on a rolling basis starting on Januay 15 and continuing until the program is full. Please submit your application as soon as you can!
ACADEMIC CREDITS:
4 college credits are available from Prescott College for this course. Credit fees $125/credit or $500 overall.
Learn more about the Thoreau College experience at thoreaucollege.org.