The Green Mountain College (Vermont) online Master of Science degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities (MRSC) adopts GMC’s groundbreaking bioregional approach, where students apply what they learn to real projects in their local communities.
The Master of Science degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities (MRSC) is the first program of its kind in the nation. A two-year program accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the MRSC featured writer and climate-change activist Bill McKibben as its scholar in residence in February, 2015.
This program adopts GMC’s groundbreaking bioregional approach to distance learning, in which students apply what they learn in each course to their local communities. MRSC students will learn about land-use planning, economic development, energy production, food systems, and resource management, while developing skills in leadership, group organization and conflict resolution.
As in the College’s other online graduate programs, students complete their coursework at times that best fit their personal and professional lives. Because class sizes are small, students experience meaningful interactions with their classmates and individual attention from instructors. The program will prepare students for a rapidly expanding range of careers in community development, energy production, municipal agencies, businesses, and nonprofit organizations.
“The MRSC program is comprehensive and well thought out,” said Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and the author of eleven books on energy and climate change. “Rather than being just another generic sustainability program, it provides a systemic context for understanding the modern world’s environmental crises, and offers practical skills–such as an elective in Emergency Management and Communication–to prepare students for the challenges we will face in an energy-constrained, climate-disrupted world. Anyone wanting to build a sustainable and resilient community would do well to start here.”