Rubenstein School students continue to benefit from the generosity of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. of Rutland, Vermont. Since 2006, Casella has provided annual scholarship funds to the Rubenstein School.

This is the fourth year that we have used Casella's gifts to support students in Winter and Spring Travel Courses. This year, seven students received awards to take the following courses: Costa Rica: Communities, Conservation & Development; Ecuador: The Battle Over Oils & Biodiversity; Natural History & Conservation of Galapagos Islands & Tropical Andes; and Texas Wildlife Field Trip.

Students earn credits and enrich their college experience and learning in a place far different from Vermont. We are thankful to Casella for making these opportunities possible for our students. Congratulations to Nyoka Bertrand, Levi Brown, Keegan Buckley, Krista Hoffsis, Brittany LeBeau, Peter Pollander, and Erin Sharkey, who all received Casella scholarship support. 

"Students benefit immensely from their national and international travel," notes Rubenstein School Dean Nancy Mathews. "These types of experiences help prepare them to see the world through difference lenses that will prepare them to be complex problem solvers in a multi-cultural world."

Following the Texas Wildlife Field Trip, one student wrote: "I would like to thank you for your generous scholarship that allowed me to travel to Texas over spring break. Having been born and raised in Vermont, this trip gave me a chance to go to a completely new place, both culturally and environmentally, the likes of which I had never experienced before! " 

Another student reported: "Over winter break, I traveled to the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador to study the battle over oil and biodiversity in one of the most biodiverse places in the entire world. I’m still speechless and breathless from everything I saw, everyone I met and spoke to, and everything I felt while there..."