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| The 2,300 square-foot intern house is 95% complete. It has a daylight basement, main floor, loft, and greenhouse. |
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Green University™
Green Building, Green Business, and Primitive Skills Internships
Alumni: Meet Previous Interns from Green University™
Read Norm's Primitive Skills Internship Journal
Apply to our Internship program and change your world while you learn to change the world. Expect a well-rounded, although exceedingly informal curriculum that includes everything from stone masonry and welding, to wilderness survival expeditions--as well as the more cerebral exercises of writing project proposals and applying for grant funds for projects such as the Jefferson River Canoe Trail.
The 2,300 square-foot intern house is 95% complete. It has a daylight basement, main floor, loft, and greenhouse.
Here is approximately what to expect for 2009:
In 2005 we tore down the 1970 Blair mobile home previously used as intern housing. We recycled everything possible from the trailerhouse and broke ground on a new passive solar stone building to serve as the intern house for Green University™. We worked on the project through 2007 and now have a mostly functional structure. Tom is continuing to wrap up small projects on the place through 2008, and there will be additional house-building projects to complete with the internship program in 2009 and beyond. However, the primary focus of the internship program will shift away from house-building and towards primitive skills, wilderness survival, and green business projects. We especially hope to expand our primitive skills programs for public schools. Additional green business projects are encouraged. Please describe your ideas in your application letter.
December 28th, 2008 - January 10th, 2009: Everglades Canoe Trip Tom and Renee Elpel and kids will be joining Robin Blankenship of Earthknack for a two week canoe trip through the Florida Everglades. This trip is NOT part of the internship program, but anyone who is interested in spending a couple weeks with Tom and Renee and Robin can sign up for the outing. Please click here for more information. Tom and Renee will need some time to get organized after returning home. The 2009 internship program begins February 1st.
February - March: February is pretty frigid in Montana, but we will kick off the year with a week-long walkabout along the Jefferson River corridor, testing our abilities to stay warm and find food. While at home we will finish the basement of the intern house, including plumbing and wiring the bathroom and plastering all of the walls. Yes, the bottom line is that you are paying good money to come work your butt off building a house that is ultimately for somebody else, but future interns will be immensely grateful for your efforts! Read More. We may also tackle some hide-tanning projects.
April - May: In mid-April we will do a week-long walkabout through the Charles M. Russel Wildlife Refuge in north-central Montana. In May we expect to do a week long trek in southwestern Idaho. In between trips we will be wrapping up house construction projects, writing grants, and taking the local 7th and 8th grade classes out for overnight wilderness survival camping trips. Hopefully, we'll squeeze in some other field trips with the elementary school kids as well. You will also have time to pursue your own primitive skills/green business interests.
June, July and August: Summer is play time in Montana, when the snow melts out of the mountains and wildflowers explode with color in every meadow. (Okay, so it can snow here in the middle of June, but it is still summer by our standards!) There will be plenty of projects to keep up with around the place, and we'll probably tackle some small jobs on the construction site, but we will mostly focus on having fun in the great outdoors. Tom and Renee's highest priority in summer is to put in some quality time with their kids. Expect the Elpel's to be entirely absent for up to four weeks during the summer.
Summer is a great time to pursue your primitive skills or green business interests, and your enthusiasm and questions are the spark that gets Tom excited to teach. Every year is different, based on the interests that our interns bring to the school. Some individuals have had a passion for botany, others for grandiose primitive shelters, and some have focused almost entirely on hide tanning, making their own head-to-toe buckskin outfits. Whatever your interests are, we will coach you to the best of our abilities, with our enthusiasm for the subject typically matched to yours: If you're excited about it, then we probably will be too.
We'll take a break from Silver Star from time to time for some primitive wilderness survival treks or canoe trips for recreation and entertainment. For a sampler of some of the outings we do, be sure to read In Search of Spring and Summer of Walkabouts.
September - October: Tom and Renee and kids attend Rabbitstick Rendezvous for one week every September; it is an annual gathering in Idaho of primitive skills practitioners from across North America. Interns are also encouraged to register for this special event. Afterwards, we will do a primitive expedition into the high country to harvest pine nuts and enjoy the fall colors. Interns will have had an opportunity over the course of the summer (if interested) to tan hides and make clothes and gear. This outing will be a good chance to test out skills and gear in the wilds. This is not an actual class, and anyone else who has at least some buckskin clothing and primitive gear is welcome to join us for fun.
Afterwards, we will build a masonry stove in the intern house and film a video of the process (unless Tom gets to this project in 2008), plus we will tie up other remaining building projects around the place. Fall is also time for making apple cider, always a treat for everyone!
November - December: We will discuss green business ideas throughout the time that you are here, and potentially begin the research and development phase of those projects. Winter is also a good time for craft-type primitive skills projects, such as tanning skins and making clothes.
Don't expect anything remotely resembling an organized schedule while you are here. We work together on building projects part of the time, while at other times you will be on your own, doing self-directed learning. We will gladly coach you in any way that we can, but we will not get you out of bed in the morning and walk you through a schedule to accomplish your goals. Self-directed learning is a foreign concept to most people, since our educational system encourages people to become dependent on other people to tell them what to do and when to do it. Green University™ is a great place to develop your skills as a self-learner, as long as you are willing to put forth the effort to make things happen.
Duration: Green University™ 2009 Internships start February 1st, or as soon after that as you are able to come, and run until you have successfully launched a Green Business (if you desire to)-- or until we mutually get tired of each other, whichever comes first!
Cost: The cost for internships is $500 per month, or a one-time fee of $2,500 for the entire year. Most previous interns have stayed for up to six months, but with the intern house mostly complete, some interns have returned numerous times throughout the year. Applicants who apply for six months or longer are favored in our selection process. Lodging and basic food staples, (rice, beans, flour, oats, etc.) are provided. It would help to read Tom's books, Participating in Nature, Botany in a Day, Living Homes, Roadmap to Reality and Direct Pointing to Real Wealth, so you know where we are coming from philosophically. All interns will be required to read and sign our Liability Waiver and Release Form (PDF)
Applications: To apply, first read through our Internship FAQ's. Please give careful consideration before you contact us. When ready, you may click over to our Contact Page and send us a detailed biography of yourself, why you are interested in our Green Business Internship, and what kind of Green Business projects interest you the most.
To be notified about upcoming additions and changes to our programs, you are invited to join our Green University™ Upcoming Classes Call List. Please click over to our Contact Page and send an e-mail asking to be included on the Green University™ Call List. The list is not used for any other purpose, and it will not be shared with any other source. Expect to receive class updates 2 to 4 times a year, with notices on stone masonry classes, earth skills classes, and informal canoe trips and walk-abouts.
Alumni: Meet Previous Interns from Green University™
Return to the Green University™ Home Page
The longer it has been since I was out there the more I appreciate my brief time with all of you. My memories of sitting on a big fallen cottonwood by the river at your store and watching the birds dart around just above the surface of the water, or of hiking in the Tobacco Roots through the thick grass beneath the conifers, have only become clearer and more profound with the passing of time. Even remembering the pain of hunger and cold, it all seems so... necessary. I just wanted to thank you, Tom, since I don't think I really have quite properly enough, for the whole experience.
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