The Sporades Islands Preservation Foundation

 Δείτε στα Ελληνικά

Learn With SIPF 

With our lecture, library, exhibit and performance spaces, combined within our central island location of Skopelos, and the use of Distance Learning technology,
our Foundation is easily accessible not only to the entire island chain but also to the world and provides a wide range of learning opportunities. 
Our mission states that through education we will encourage locals and others to realize the importance of preserving their valuable skills and way of life. 
The fragility of the environment and scarcity of local resources are the two primary reasons why it is important that we preserve the locale ecosystems.  
Our programs introduce locals to alternative modes of commerce and tourism that renew the natural environment, complimenting and preserving the disappearing sustainable occupations, livelihood, and way of life. We pass this legacy on to future generations, whether it’ll be within their own families or with other willing individuals training them to be the artisans and craftspeople for which this area is famous.

Our Center hosts learning programs for our visitors and local communities.

Finally we engage our community in informative and beneficial collaborative sessions to learn how to assist in moving forward to enhance and sustain the present way of life.

STUDY ABROAD

Study Abroad at the Sporades Islands Sustainable Life Center

The Sporades Islands Sustainable Life Center invites your study abroad program to these beautiful Aegean islands to learn, preserve, celebrate and, if you choose, to gain valuable hands-on experience in sustainable life practices.

Our team of experienced educators, craftsmen, and artisans work to meet the needs of diverse study abroad programs. We invite you to a learning vacation on Skopelos Island with the sparkling Aegean Sea as a major attraction. No matter what your students study at the Center, they are sure to return home relaxed, renewed and ready to expand the knowledge they gained in the Sporades.


When your students come to the Sporades

The team at The Sporades Islands Sustainable Life Center will work with you, customizing your visit to meet your study abroad students’ needs. We can merge your program with the cultural immersion available on Skopelos Island, the Sporades and mainland Greece. Your curriculum can include several options with the Center.

Your program’s main focus could be sustainable life practices

If your institution will grant college credit for studying sustainable life practices, the Center offers invaluable training in ways to advance a community toward economic independence and environmental responsibility.

The Aegean Sea contains many inhabited islands with an inestimable ecological and archeological value. The present model of development promotes massive tourism and extensive construction, which seriously threatens the islands’ fragile ecosystems and economic independence.

To address this ominous problem, the Sporades Islands Sustainable Life Center fosters sustainable practices, traditional and progressive, through education, cooperative learning and hands-on activities. The Center additionally supports occupations and skills necessary for sustainable communities.

Thus, the Center serves as a microcosmic laboratory where study abroad students learn how to balance modern progress with traditional and progressive, sustainable development practices that the Center is implementing on Skopelos Island. Your students will return home energized and ready to develop sustainable life practices in their communities.

...Or your curriculum could include a
sustainable life component

The study of sustainable life practices doesn’t have to be the focus of your study abroad curriculum on Skopelos Island. It can serve as an optional component, activities that supplement your study abroad curriculum.

In addition to your students’ daily instruction at the Center—whether it be an art class, communications, photography—they also can spend as many hours as you choose working on various sustainable life projects around the island.

Or, if you wish, just come to Skopelos and use the Center’s facilities for your study abroad classroom activities, and add on any component such as touring the other islands or mainland Greece.

If your study abroad program is visiting another location in the region

If your study abroad program takes your students to other areas of Greece, or anywhere in the Mediterranean region, you can consider including a side tour to the Center at Skopelos for an abbreviated study.


What are the sustainable life projects being developed on Skopelos Island?

Various individuals from around the globe are helping the Center develop local projects that will move Skopelos Island toward a more sustainable, independent local economy. These projects, which are available to your study abroad students as focuses of study or as side activities, include:

  • Solar/wind energy project
    Study abroad students get hands-on experience developing alternative energy for Skopelos as well as tours, discussions with experts and class activities.
  • Health and wellness project
    Sustainable life practices begin with a healthy individual. Students learn ways to develop traditional Mediterranean diets and lifestyles in their own communities.
  • Dry-stone masonry project
    Students learn the xerolithies craft, stone masonry without mortar, from an expert local craftsman, applying lessons with hands-on projects on the island.
  • Traditional occupations project
    Students get hands-on experience in developing an agrarian, artisan and sea-faring local economy, including beekeeping, husbandry, organic farming, fishing and olive oil soap making.
  • Fishing and navigation skills
    Students receive sea survival and navigational training with an Olympic rowing medalist and a sailing club to encourage rowing and sailing over power boating.
  • Trails, flora, fauna projects
    With projects such as developing ancient paths into bicycle trails, students learn how a sustainable community can rely more on lifestyles of voluntary simplicity.
Your students will learn and preserve, but also they will celebrate life

The Greek way of life is balance in work and play, balance in body, mind and spirit. So, each day at the Center, your students can enjoy swimming, boating, nature outings and participation in cultural immersion on Skopelos, in the Sporades or on the Greek mainland.

Through education and cooperative learning, the Sporades Center for Sustainable Life fosters the rediscovery of sustainable practices, traditional and progressive. The Center promotes the vitality of the Sporades islands’ fragile environment, agriculture, nautical pursuits, and traditional interdependent occupations and skills.