Partners

Au Sable Institute operates as a service to colleges and universities, churches and denominations, and organizations and agencies, in partnership with them. The longest standing partnerships are with the Participating Colleges and Universities, with whom the Institute works to provide courses, research opportunities, and certification programs that assist them and their students in achieving a rich and full curriculum in areas related to environmental stewardship. At its two campuses in the Great Lakes Forest and in Puget Sound, the Institute provides educational and research settings for undergraduate and post-graduate students and faculty for these partners for the purpose of enhancing opportunities to teach, learn, and put environmental stewardship into practice. At other sites across the continent and around the globe, the Institute’s partnerships include sharing of facilities and cooperative programs. For many of these partners, the facilities for teaching, research, and stewardship practice belong to them and are shared with us and our students and faculty. Among our partnerships, both established and under development are the following:

Christian Colleges and Universities These number about 60 institutions across the continent, and partnerships here engage faculty and students in a vibrant and productive community of teaching and learning.

Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. Au Sable and the CCCU have a long-standing relationship in which Au Sable provides the CCCU with financial aid and scholarships for any of their member schools not listed with the Institute as a Participating College or University. These ‘Eligible Colleges and Universities’ are listed on page 31. Au Sable recognizes this partnership by listing the CCCU as a participating institution in this Official Bulletin.

Heber Au Sable Institute
Our sister Institute at Bishop Heber College in Tiruchirapalli, India, is Au Sable’s partner in research, teaching, and practical stewardship in the Indian sub-continent. Our mutual research projects include rice-straw building construction, roof-top gardens, and pedal-power technology.

National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE)

Educational Concerns Hunger Organziation (ECHO)
ECHO of North Fort Myers, Florida partners with the Institute in giving courses that relate to missionary earthkeeping and tropical ecology, including for example, a course in Tropical Agriculture and Missions.

The John Ray Initiative (JRI)
We partner with JRI in the United Kingdom in research, education and practical stewardship. Our co-sponsored international Forum 2002, which produced the Oxford Declaration on Climate Change, is an example.

U. S. National Park Service
Our campus on Whidbey Island lies within Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, and unit of NPS, with which we partner in areas of prairie and ecosystem restoration, interpretive natural history, and land stewardship.

Northwest Lower Michigan School Systems
Three school districts in the northern Lower Peninsula partner with us in participating in a program that teaches environmental stewardship and environmental history to help meet Michigan education requirements.

Whidbey Island Community
Community residents and local organizations use our campus on Whidbey Island for hiking, nature study and meetings. Organizations who utilize or are involved in various ways with the site include the Coupeville School District, the Whidbey Audubon Society, the Washington Native Plant Society, The Nature Conservancy, The Wilderness Society (Pacific Northwest Section), the National Parks Conservation Association (Pacific Regional Office), the Coupeville Art Center, and the Ebey's Landing Trust Board.

Internship Partners
Internships offered by Au Sable are done in partnership with a wide array of institutions and organizations, including the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England; the Eden Project in Cornwall, England; A Rocha in Lebanon, Portugal, and the United Kingdom; Floresta in the Dominican Republic; and the Wagbo Peace Center in East Jordan, Michigan.