LENS at Wake Forest: Confront a challenge in your community.

Today’s rapidly changing world calls for community-oriented leaders who can confront challenges and work for the betterment of humanity.  LENS is a three-week summer program that equips current high school students with an academic foundation necessary to become such a leader.  Rising juniors and seniors live on Wake Forest’s beautiful Reynolda Campus and examine some of the world’s most pressing challenges through different inter-disciplinary lenses.  By taking this unique and multifaceted approach, LENS trains students to examine problems holistically with an eye towards crafting creative solutions.

Students in the 2012 (July 15 – August 3) program will confront the challenge of global sustainability.  Wake Forest University professors will expose students to the biological, ecological, political, economic, social, and legal facets of sustainability.  Students will broach these topics through seminars and small group meetings.  The Living Labs portion of the program will allow students to take excursions to local farms, food markets, and water sources to examine the ways in which community leaders are altering their practices to be more sustainable.  Guest speakers will discuss the ways in which sustainability concerns shape their respective industries.  Throughout the program, students will work to craft a community action plan that addresses a sustainability need in their own community.  By using the skills they develop at LENS, students will be able to return home and translate this plan into action.  An official Wake Forest University certificate of achievement will be awarded to all LENS participants.

Applications are currently being accepted, so apply today!

For more information, download our 2012 brochure (pdf).