Appalachian Program

Educating the Next Generation Since 1972

The Mountain Institute’s Appalachian Program dates back to our founding in 1972 at Spruce Knob, West Virginia. From the ’70s until early 2017, our Program focused on creating an awareness and appreciation for the complex interaction between community, culture, and conservation. Our approach was based on experiential learning courses and sustainable community initiatives. Spruce Knob Mountain Center (SKMC) served as the home base for TMI’s wide variety of Mountain Learning courses. In March of 2017, three of the original founders of our Institute formed Experience Learning – a separate non-profit – to take on educational activities in the Appalachian Mountains. Experience Learning has also acquired the Spruce Knob Mountain Center property where many of these educational programs are taught. Over the years, more than 1,000 of these innovative courses have been taught, most in West Virginia, but also as far away as Maine and the Florida Keys. Experience Learning will carry on the Institute’s tradition of educating the next generation in a way that brings adventure, group process skills, leadership development, conservation, and environmental education together in a rigorous and invigorating environment.

To learn more about current educational programs, visit Experience Learning‘s new website. 

Here’s the press release about TMI and Experience Learning in the Appalachian Mountains.

 
Since 1972 The Mountain Institute has partnered with remote mountain communities in the highest, longest and oldest mountains of the world. We work together to conserve ecosystems, develop sustainable livelihoods and protect unique mountain cultures.