The Redfish School of Change is a fusion of academic and experiential learning. An intensive and demanding program, it covers course material in three environmental studies courses at the University of Victoria — ES 380: The Political Ecology of Food, ES 382: Ecology of Sustenance, and ES 370: Leadership Skills for Community Action.
As a participant in the program, you experience wilderness expeditions, simulation
activities, leadership initiatives, guest speakers, field research, participatory decision-making, workshops, tours of
local initiatives, group discussions and team projects. Assignments are due before, during and after the six-week semester. Required readings will be made available 3–4 weeks before the field school begins.
Download a draft of the course outlines.
Download a sample week of the program schedule.
Sample activities
• Backpack
in Valhalla
Provincial Park
• Take a six-day voyageur canoe trip down the Fraser river
• Work on an organic farm.
Sample seminars and workshops
• 
Thinking about the food we eat
• Science and social change
• Facilitation and conflict transformation
• It takes all kinds
• Thinking strategically.
Sample assignments
• My bioregional backpack
• Precis on selected readings
• Ecology field journal
• Community action project plan and presentation
Learning objectives
Students will be able to demonstrate
- an understanding of the complexity, scale and interdependence of ecological, social and economic systems.
- the capacity to develop effective strategies for a broad range of social and environmental challenges.
- an appreciation for plurality in ways of knowing and among scientific and cultural perspectives toward creating social change.
- the capacity and confidence to employ leadership skills for effective community action.
- the ability to participate collaboratively in finding solutions for social and environmental challenges.
- an appreciation of the relevance of place — and the features that distinguish regional and local contexts and thus approaches to social and environmental change.
The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create.