Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information

Summer Experience Programs

*All courses are currently happening this summer.  They may be cancelled depending on how the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic proceeds in the next few months.*

SUNY Geneseo and the Department of Residence Life are proud to offer four Summer Experience programs for incoming and returning students:

                                                   Summer Experience Program

Letchworth Experience - students investigating stream samples.
Sustainability Experience - getting ready to kayak
Adirondack Experience - students with Professor Griz
Letchworth Experience - invasive species removal
Sustainability Experience - kayaking on Conesus Lake
Adirondack Experience - canoeing in the St. Regis Canoe area

Learning Outcomes for XLRN 101:

  • Apply discipline-specific knowledge and skills to place-based learning experiences
  • Form connections between broad conceptual frameworks and themes (e.g., but not limited to, sustainability, politics and power, economics and social structures) and local contexts
  • Engage in critical analysis and argumentation in oral discourse and written work
  • Synthesize multiple content knowledge in engagement with real-world problems and issues
  • Reflect upon academic experiences, assess changes in learning and outlook over time, and to make personal, professional, and civic plans based on that self-reflection

These have 3-4 day summer components and are fall semester courses.  So there is a small amount of coursework expected in the fall.

Applications will be live on March 7 and are due July 1.

We do have financial grants available for students to subsidize the cost of each trip through the Summer Experience Scholarship and Grants Committee.  All required paperwork for participation in a work trip must be submitted with this request.  NOTE: Students are expected to pay for trip fees if they have the resources and the grants will only cover partial funding for a given trip.  Any participant is eligible to apply.  Just fill out the form.  Please contact Meg Reitz (reitzm@geneseo.edu) with any questions. 

Click on the links below for more information on each of the trips!

Adirondack Experience

The Adirondack Experience is a four-day program for first-year students based in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. The program is taught by Professor Griz Caudle, an Adirondack guide and expert in Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Students stay in residence halls at Paul Smith's College and spend their days hiking, canoeing, and reflecting on their transition to college in nature. 

The Adirondack Leadership course is for students in all years who have either taken the Adirondack Experience course (XLRN 101) in their first year or have other, significant outdoor experience.  Students spend 4 days learning about outdoor education and leadership and then serve as mentors and TAs for the XLRN 101 students the following week.

  Letchworth Experience

The  Letchworth Experience is a three-day program for first-year students designed based in nearby Letchworth State Park.  This section is taught by faculty in the Geography Department and introduces students to a wealth of research, knowledge, and history that exists adjacent to the Geneseo campus.  Students stay in cabins at the Park and spend their days learning about and researching the geography of the Genesee Valley region.

Genesee Valley Sustainability Experience

The Genesee Valley Sustainability Experience is open to all students attending Geneseo in the fall semester.  This program is taught by Director of Sustainability, Dan DeZarn, and takes students on a tour of the Genesee Valley from a sustainability perspective.  Students kayak and hike their way through the lakes, the valley, and the river that give Geneseo its name and its resources and stay at the Wadsworth Homestead.