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284 N. Pleasant St. ste 1
Amherst, MA 01002
(888) 515-7333
India - Integral Sustainability at Auroville

This page has information about our semester programs in India. Click Here to learn more about our 3-week long January program.

Overview

Study abroad in Auroville, an international community along the tropical coast of southern India dedicated to promoting human unity. Participate in an academic program that fosters collaborative inquiry, critical thinking, and dialogue while exploring daily awareness practices such as yoga, non-violent communication, and meditation.

Through engagement with a holistic approach to world issues that encompasses inner, cultural, and outer processes, you broaden and deepen your understanding of sustainability issues. Opportunities to learn about and have hands on experience with habitat restoration, local organic food production, teaching in local schools, working with village action groups and more helps students build a growing theoretical and practical understanding of issues relating to local and global sustainability.

Empower yourself and learn to empower others through a process whereby what you learn is integrated with how you live.

Check out the student weblogs »
Browse the photo gallery »

 

Highlights
Explore Auroville, home to one of the world’s most successful eco-reforestation efforts, the Center for Renewable Energy, and an extremely productive tropical habitat restored from ecological disaster
Engage in service learning that benefits local communities. Opportunities include: performing habitat restoration, interning at an organic farm, teaching in a village school, and working with village action groups to build understanding of local and global sustainability issues
Overnight at Sri Ramanamaharshi’s Ashram and climb Arunchala Mountain, locally believed to be the body of the Hindu God Shiva

Experience a guided sacred solo at Auroville’s Nature Camp outside Kodaikanal, home of verdant hills, waterfalls, and the ever elusive Kurinji flower

 

Auroville as "Ecovillage"

was founded in 1968 with the intention of realizing human unity, and is now home to approximately 2,000 individuals from over 40 nations around the world. Vibrant community culture and its expertise in renewable energy systems, habitat restoration, ecology skills, mindfulness practices, and holistic education make Auroville one of the best places to study abroad in India.

Read more about Auroville and its location »


Courses

Group Dynamics (Comm 352) (4 cr.)
Learn to recognize and analyze the physical, social, economic, political, ethical, and spiritual elements that make up sustainable communities. Students build strong conceptual frameworks and have opportunities for real-world experience by developing a learning community and engaging with established host communities.


Global and Local Sustainable Living (Env. Design 592A) (4 cr.)
Study the role of human history, language, education, physical landscape, society, and world view on shaping human-place relations. Explore methods of strengthening these connections through use of ecological footprint analysis, ecological literacy, mindful awareness, community/societal action, and systems thinking.


Applications and Practices of Sustainable Living (Service Learning 397I) (4 cr.)
This field-based experience, combined with readings, dialogue, reflection and a project paper, introduces you to the history, methods, and meanings of sustainable development. Students select, implement, record, and evaluate an internship project in sustainable development during their ten-week stay in Auroville, India.


Body, Mind, and Spirit: Cultivating Personal Sustainability (Int’l Ed 292C) (4cr.)
Study the importance of worldviews and how they affect human behavior and the earth, and gain an appreciation for the historical role of religions and spirituality in creating culture. In addition to seminars, readings, reflective journaling, and discussion on philosophical and spiritual movements that link inner transformation with political and environmental action, this course explores how practices such as yoga and meditation, holistic health, and rituals expand perceptions about who we are and how we live.


Academic Credit
Earn 16 transferable credits through the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Find out about transferring credits to your home school »

 

View the full curriculum for this program »

Expert faculty help students build skills in ecology, habitat restoration and group facilitation through workshops, coursework, seminars and internships, which take place outdoors and offer transferable college credit.
Expert faculty help students build skills in ecology, habitat restoration and group facilitation through workshops, coursework, seminars and internships, which take place outdoors and offer transferable college credit. More photos »

Program Dates (subject to change)

Spring Semester
January 23 - May 2
Application Deadline: October 31*


Fall Semester
September 13 - December 19
Application Deadline: April 15*



*Rolling admissions on a first come first serve basis. Contact us for late availability.

Learn how to apply »

Questions? Contact us »

Particpants form a strong and supportive learning community within the dynamic living community of Auroville.
Particpants form a strong and supportive learning community within the dynamic living community of Auroville. More photos »

Costs

tuition, program costs, room and board, in-country travel .... $13,400

credit... Included


Learn about financial aid options »

Program at a Glance
Weeks 1 & 2
Introduction to the vision, mission and history of Auroville
Visit Auroville projects and explore potential service learning sites
Talk with and engage Auroville community members
Visit and explore significant sites in Pondicherry
Explore and learn about the local bioregion
Participate in group building activities and service projects
Development of community agreements
Introduction to the academic courses
Weeks 3 - 9
Development of individualized learning plans
Daily engagement in internships
Active participation in faculty and Aurovillian seminars on the personal, community, ecological and socio-economic aspects of sustainability
Participate in learning community meetings and activities
Travel to Tiruvannamalai and climb Mt. Arunachala
Travel to Madurai and explore sites of cultural and historic significance
Mid semester evaluations, assessments and learning celebration
Weeks 10 - 11
Travel to the Auroville Nature Camp outside of Kodaikanal
Engage in service work projects
Explore and learn about the areas local ecology
Participate in a two day, guided sacred solo
Week 12 - 13
Community stays in Auroville
Student led seminars
Facilitate and participate in learning community activities and meetings
Week 14
Reflect on, synthesize, and integrate the semesters learning
Final assessment and learning celebrations
Develop a post program life map

Faculty

Bindu Mohanty

Ph.D., Comparative Studies in Integral Yoga and Transpersonal Theories, CIIS
M.A., English Literature, University of Kentucky
B.A., English Literature, Sambalpur University

A writer and teacher, Bindu Mohanty has lived in Auroville since 1994. Committed to the practice of Integral Yoga, she believes that social change requires a radical transformation of the individual. She is passionate about promoting social justice and ecological sustainability in a globalized world through an integral and transdisciplinary approach to education. Her current research interests include interpersonal dynamics and social evolution.


Daniel Greenberg
Ph.D., Child Development and School Psychology University of Minnesota
Greenberg has studied and directed community-based educational programs for over 20 years. Following a B.A. from Cornell University, he completed a doctorate at the University of Minnesota and wrote his thesis on children and education in community, and later spent a year at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland working with children and families there. He is founder and Executive Director of Living Routes, which partners with the University of Massachusetts - Amherst to develop accredited ecovillage-based education programs that promote sustainability.


Monique Gauthier
M.Ed., Integrative Education, Lesley University
Long-standing Faculty with the Living Routes India program, Gauthier is passionate about empowering the inner teacher in each student. She is also a Transformational Kinesiologist, a Certified Professional Midwife, attending births for over 20 years, and a guest lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Natural Birth and Consciousness.


Jake Pollack
Ph.D. ABD, Education for Sustainability, Prescott College;
M.A., Integrative Health California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)

Pollack currently resides near Pondicherry with his family and has been teaching with the LR program in Auroville for three years. A long-time practitioner and student of South Asian contemplative and healing traditions including: yoga, Ayurveda, and Siddha medicine, he is currently researching the link between these systems and ecological wisdom. His dissertation is focused on the way transformative education experience can assist the transition to more sustainable lifestyles.








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