Sterling Terrain V02 - Flipbook - Page 37
Sterling College | 35
David Gilligan,
Director of the Wilderness
Field Program & Faculty
in Ecology
The Wilderness
Field Program
Sterling College students are no strangers to the Sierra Nevada. This was our
tenth trip there since faculty members David Gilligan and Laura Beebe, along
with ten adventurous students, pioneered our High Sierra Wilderness field
program in 2009. Since then, the program has become a Sterling College
classic, attracting students from across the College to experience a summer
living on the ground and in the open in the high mountains.
This year was also the pilot year for the Wilderness Field Program initiative,
to be followed in 2023 with the launch of the fully developed program, which
combines our spring Southwest Field Semester with our summer High Sierra
Semester to create an opportunity for both matriculated and visiting students to spend a full year in the field. We have established a field base in Central Arizona, complete with office and classroom space, learning resources,
a field equipment room, and two full-time faculty in residence. Sterling has a
new backyard: the American West, and the Wilderness Field Program is perfectly positioned to access the diverse landscapes, ecosystems, cultures,
and public lands of this magnificent part of the world.
Come explore with us,
outside, on foot, & offline!
Learn more:
Applications open for
Spring & Summer 2023
David brings over twenty years of
wilderness education experience to
the program. He has a dual academic background in natural history and
philosophy. He specializes in vegetation ecology, botany and geology in
mountain and desert environments,
and nature philosophy.
He has trained hundreds of people in
expeditionary backpacking, mountaineering, canoeing and sea kayaking skills necessary for exploring wild
places. He is the author of numerous
books and articles, including The Secret Sierra, In the Years of the Mountains and “The High Country of the
Mind”. He has lived and worked in California, Arizona, and Northern New
England and traveled to mountain
environments all over the world. He
has developed and taught interdisciplinary wilderness field programs for
the Sierra Institute, Prescott College,
and Sterling College.
Photo: Will Freihofer