Ross School Seniors, Sylvia Channing (Ross Environmental Club founder) and Karen Sanchez talk about their senior project- one month living off the grid.

The seniors hadn’t know each other well before embarking on the project- their common interests brought them together for the project. “The only thing we had in common was that we wanted to do this,” Sanchez told 27East (Students Take On Month-Long Sustainability Challenge).

“…Though the two hadn’t known each other well they committed to living together in a 16-by-16 foot tent for the month of August. They pledged to work their own land and survive off only what they could grow, raise, catch and collect. They bought milking goats and laying hens. They would only bike wherever they had to go—for Karen that included a job in Southampton—and would use only what electricity they got from solar panels they had purchased….”

With the help of family, friends and teachers, both students have new appreciation for convenience, work, and consumption.

“’We kept coming upon these problems that I didn’t predict,’” Sylvia said. “’Anything we planted before June was just gone and we had to adjust to that.

“‘What I really learned is that you can read about farming animals or anything like that as much as you want,’” Karen said. “’But once you get down to the hands-on experience like that you realize there is no amount of books that can prepare you.’”

“….And things definitely did (come up), Ms. Channing said. They couldn’t chop their own wood, they couldn’t figure out how to get the solar panels they had purchased to work, the goats ran away (and fortunately came back), they had way too much quinoa and not enough diet variety and above all, they got lonely.” (27 East)

Read about how Channing and Sanchez worked through their month off the grid and how they think about their futures, “Students Take On Month-long Sustainability Challenge.”

Photo credit: hoi polloi