Sea to Shining Sea
Learning through Conservation
To learn, one must first experience; to experience, one must first act. However, not all are granted such an opportunity. Nowadays, most children are born into urban communities, removed from family, faith, and nature. Thus, Aurelia seeks to create an education program which re-embeds children into the setting of their local environment. Using hands-on experiences to empower a new generation in resource and land management, graduates will be defined not by the degrees they earn but by the homes they build.
Aurelia, Manifested
Living to Conserve; Conserving to Live
As G.K. Chesterton asserted, “Our society is so abnormal that the normal man never dreams of having the normal occupation of looking after his own property. When he chooses a trade, he chooses one of the ten thousand trades that involve looking after other people’s property.”
Yet, none of us truly own anything. For, as Sir Roger Scruton observed, “We do not merely study the past: we inherit it, and inheritance brings with it not only the rights of ownership, but the duties of trusteeship…Things fought for and died for should not be idly squandered. For they are the property of others, who are not yet born.”
We are all of us part of a grand Chain of Being, building as we destroy, living as we die, consuming as we are consumed, tasked with maintaining for the next generation who will sit beneath the trees we plant and witness only as saplings.
Our Objectives (What We Seek)
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I: Health
A successful holistic education will manifest as health in heart, mind, body and soul for the student who authentically reaches for that kind of wellness the ancient Greeks referred to as eudaemonia.
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II: Home
A successful holistic education will manifest the sense of home, in both the individual and communal sense, for the student who authentically reaches for that which the ancient Greeks called oikos.
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III: Heritage
A successful holistic education will manifest as a cultural heritage in art, blood, and soul for the student who authentically reaches for the fulfillment of potential that ancient Greeks named arete.
Civilization Re-Defined
Stewardship as Education
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S.E.E.D.
Sustainable Energy-Efficient Dwellings
To restore health to the households of at-risk communities, S.E.E.D. seeks to develop hands-on programs to teach students how to create beautiful, sustainable, and affordable housing.
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T.R.U.N.C.
Treatment and Rehabilitation of Underrepresented and Neglected Communities
To restore the health of local communities, T.R.U.N.C. seeks to develop a network of volunteer programs to provide students real-life experience in the distribution of aid and services. -
S.T.E.M.
Sustainable Trades in Environmental Management
To restore the healthy relationship between communities and their local food production, S.T.E.M. seeks to provide agricultural learning experiences by managing the land trust Aurelia wishes to establish.