The Residency

Each semester in the low residency Masters in Socially Responsible Business and Sustainable Communities Program begins with an eight-day residency on Goddard’s scenic campus in Central Vermont. During the residency, students and program faculty come together as a culturally diverse and progressively oriented community of learners. Students meet one-on-one and in small advising groups with their faculty advisor, plan the work of the semester, network with other students, attend skill-building workshops and program-related seminars presented by faculty, guest speakers, and returning students, and participate in site visits to experience first-hand a wide array of local Vermont organizational and community-based approaches to social responsibility and sustainability.

Topics of recent seminars and site visits have included starting up socially responsible businesses, creating self-sufficient revenue streams for not-for-profits, using alterative currencies to create prosperous local economies, understanding the ecovillage as a model of sustainable community, approaches to civic engagement and economic development in international settings, the significance of place in a bioregional identity, and organizational models that support economic and social justice.