Brown Environmental Leadership Lab
BELL in Rhode Island 2010

From across the U.S., select high school students will meet for the first time on the campus of Brown University. For 2-week sessions, students will live at the university’s Haffenreffer estate, a 372-acre historic farm adjacent to Narragansett Bay. In a program known as BELL or the Brown Environmental Leadership Lab, students engage in intensive leadership development activities and learn about sustainable development and field ecology through the academic fields of biology, geology, and environmental science and policy. Students are mentored by Brown faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students.

This unique program is made available to two Hawai‘i Island high school students through Brown University and The Kohala Center.

BELL consists of three separate sessions, entitled BELL Sustainable Development (June 28–July 9 and July 12–July 23) and BELL Field Ecology (July 26–August 6).

In the Sustainable Development Program, students learn how human demands on the environment can compromise the long-term health of ecosystems that exist to sustain us. Students develop the leadership necessary for tackling environmental problems within their home communities, and also learn about policies, practices, and emerging technologies that help to reduce human ecological impact. In the Field Ecology Program, students examine the science behind current environmental issues, and learn about current environmental science research. Students also participate in an ongoing research project, and practice designing an experiment and analyzing and reporting scientific data.

Hawai‘i Island students are encouraged to apply for the BELL program. Scholarship application deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, February 26, 2010.

Complete applications consist of:
- Application Form (for Hawai‘i residents)
- Teacher Recommendation Form
- Official school transcript
- A one page essay describing your interest in the BELL program
- Scholarship Application Form (if applying for scholarship funding)

Mail or fax completed applications to:
The Kohala Center
P.O. Box 437462
Kamuela, Hawai‘i 96743
Fax 808-885-6707

Please note: Hawai'i Island students applying for this scholarship must send their application materials to The Kohala Center, and do not need to pay the deposit or application fee.

Contact Samantha Birch at sbirch@kohalacenter.org or 808-443-2755, or visit the BELL Web site.