Below you can read about new developments in our projects, such as “Choose Your Own Sustainability Adventure” and our other formats that help to experience sustainability first hand.
_____________________________________________________________February 2017
The Choose Your Own Sustainability Adventure project got evaluated!
Miriam found a way to use her work on a Master thesis in a meaningful way: Via the GO Eco-Social Master’s Theses Portal (in German) of the Eco-Social Student Forum she found out about the opportunity to research how the ViA project “Choose Your Own Sustainability Adventure” promotes and achieves the objectives of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development in Austrian schools. Her results will now help us to further develop our project in order to contribute even better to the SDG#4.
______________________________________________________________January 2016
Two new ViA Ambassadors traveling the world! Clara and Seraphin adopted a class at the school “Bundesrealgymnasiums Ringstraße” in Krems, Austria and are discovering India since mid-January!
For more information about them and the challenges that they will overcome in the course of their Sustainability Adventure, click on the links.
________________________________________________________________July 2015
Check out this short video of Irene, the newest ViA Ambassador, as she starts her flight-free journey from Vienna, Austria to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! Irene adopted a class at the Rosasgasse High School in Vienna and plans on focusing on the link between human rights and sustainability (she’s currently pursuing a master’s degree in human rights). You can follow more of her sustainability adventure on our Facebook page.
________________________________________________________________May 2015
The Choose Your Own Sustainability Adventure project is being evaluated! Via the GO Eco-Social Master’s Theses Portal (in German) of the Eco-Social Student Forum (ÖSSFO) Miriam Bahn, a master’s student of social ecology at the Vienna branch of the University of Klagenfurt (Austria) found a topic for her master’s thesis which will have a direct impact on how we carry out our project in the future. Over the coming months Miriam will be conducting her research and interviewing stakeholders regarding the project and how it promotes and achieves the objectives of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development. We look forward to working with her and reading the results of her research!
_____________________________________________________________January 2015
A new year with new ViA Ambassadors and a new partner school in a new country! Mathis and Hannah started their around-the-world travels as ViA Ambassadors in Thailand on December 5th, 2014. They have adopted a class in Essing, Germany, which will follow their sustainability adventures and help them solve sustainability “Challenges” around the world. We’ll post more info about Mathis, Hannah, and their school in Essing soon on our homepage, so check back soon!
__________________________________________________________December 2014
Yay networking! The sustainability world is a small world. We were connected with Emily Dunning by Jenny from Baikal Wave in Irkutsk, Russia. Emily has a project similar to ours and is traveling the world on her SEEK THE CHANGE journey, interviewing people and organizations working toward a sustainable world. She also interviewed us via Skype and posted a profile about the Sustainability Adventure on her blog here. With such similar goals, we’ve decided to ‘join forces’ and support each other as partners however we can! As they say: “Alone you go fast, but together you go farther!”
_____________________________________________________________October 2014
What is the Sustainability Adventure all about? If you can read German, then check out the article “Eine Weltreise als Schulfach” by Doris Fröhlich which was published in the Austrian sustainable lifestyle magazine BIORAMA, to learn more!
___________________________________________________________September 2014
The Sustainability Adventure continues! This year we welcome a new Partner School in Washington State, Sumner High School, as the New NÖ Middle School in Retz, Austria becomes our first Associated School!
As in the first year, we will continue to meet amazing people from all walks of life and discover inspiring sustainability initiatives in the places our partner classes send us and our travels take us!
And don’t forget to follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and our project website: www.sustainability-adventure.org!
______________________________________________________________August 2014
Valentina and Matt met Kayci and Joe, writers of the blog Seed, Bark & Root, while traveling through Colombia in May. They interviewed the ViA Ambassadors this summer – click here to read the article!
_________________________________________________________________July 2014
More than 20,000km by land and sea, 100s of amazing people, +50 sustainability initiatives, 9 countries, 8 months, 3 partner school classes on 2 continents, 2 travelers and 1 awesome adventure – the first year of our project Choose Your Own Sustainability Adventure has come to a close!
Check out this video to learn more about the project’s first year or visit us on Facebook or the project homepage. And stay tuned for more when the adventure continues during the 2014/2015 school year!
________________________________________________________________June 2014
The Sustainability Adventure has made landfall in Europe!
We’re excited to carry out the 6th and final Challenge of this school year with our partner classes in Austria, which will be decided by our partner class in the United States!
In September the adventure continues, this time by land from Austria towards Southeast Asia!
______________________________________________________________22 May 2014
Click on the following link to read an article (in German) about the Sustainability Adventure in the online magazine the bird’s new nest: Eco.Life.Style.Magazine:
http://thebirdsnewnest.com/tbnn/nachhaltigkeits-abenteurer-mit-nachwuchs/
________________________________________________________________May 2014
The entire Forum ViA team, including our partner teachers in Retz and Vienna, are excited to be among the winners of the Austrian ideas competition “Teaching for a Sustainable Future” (“Nachhaltig Zukunft lehren“)!
The prize was awarded for our didactic proposal in the area of food and sourcing, specifically the second challenge of the Sustainability Adventure entitled “Strawberry Dream or Strawberry Nightmare?”
_______________________________________________________________March 2014
Great news! Forum ViA is proud to announce that its project Choose Your Own Sustainability Adventure has been selected as an official project of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development by the Austrian Commission for the UNESCO!
This distinction recognizes the project’s ongoing efforts to promote the aims and values of education for sustainable development and global learning.
_____________________________________________________________February 2014
Our new project website (www.sustainability-adventure.org) is NOW ONLINE!
The website is updated regularly and we are continuously adding content, so check back often!
_____________________________________________________________January 2014
The fourth challenge is devoted to the topic of garbage and waste management, with a focus on Nicaragua. In an international vote, the students voted overwhelmingly to send Valentina and Matt on the trail of trash, which means half a day picking up garbage and then heading to the dump! Matt and Valentina were able to visit La Chureca (Managua), once the largest open-air dump in all of Latin America, with the organization ProNica, as well as document first-hand the terrible conditions at the garbage dump in Granada. They are working on a video of their impressions and will post it online soon!
___________________________________________________________December 2013
For the third challenge students learned about the concept of ‘eco-villages‘ and researched three located at Lago de Atitlán, Guatemala to decide where to send Matt and Valentina. Here’s a video that shows the results fo the challenge.
___________________________________________________________November 2013
The second challenge dealt with strawberries and pesticide use in California. Here’s a video that shows the results of the challenge.
_____________________________________________________________October 2013
Besides Twitter, you can now also get visual impressions of the Sustainability Adventure on Instagram at: www.instagram.com/sustainability_adventure!
_____________________________________________________________October 2013
Here’s a video showing the Choose You Own Sustainability Adventure kick-off in Lakewood, WA and the results of the first challenge, which focused on the environmental impact of transportation!
_______________________________________________________September 26th, 2013
On September 26th, the ViA Ambassadors met with students at the U.S. partner school, Harrison Prep, in Lakewood (WA) and officially launched the Sustainability Adventure with a bike ride to Olympia (WA)!
Following a weekend of stormy weather, the adventure continues to the next stop in Portland (OR)!
______________________________________________________September 23rd, 2013
The project can now be followed on Twitter at @Forum_ViA.
The ViA Ambassadors, Valentina and Matt, will be tweeting about the trip and will make announcements here first!
___________________________________________________________September 2013
Great news! The project has received support in the form of product donations from Patagonia, Inc., a leader in outdoor gear and clothing whose mission is to “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.“
_________________________________________________________________July 2013
We are happy to announce that the project was selected to receive financial support from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education and Women’s Affairs! This funding enables us to have a professional designer and programmer develop the cool, interactive online interface that will be crucial for the project.
Development of the interface has already begun and will be completed in the second half of September.
We look forward to seeing the interface go from an idea to a reality!
________________________________________________________________May 2013
THREE SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN SELECTED!
Three schools – one in the US and two in Austria – have been selected to take part in the project Choose Your Own Sustainability Adventure, which will begin with the new school year in the fall of 2013!
For more information about our partner schools, please click here.