Our Connections

With college students numbering one-fourth of the city’s population, Burlington is full of energy, ideas and experiences. In fact, the city ranks fourth on Richard Florida’s list of cities with a creative class—people engaged in producing new ideas, new technology and new creative content. A catalyst for much of this activity, Champlain’s connections are:

Near and far

• Burlington is compact enough that activities are easy to get to. Church Street’s pedestrian mall, lakeside trails, bike paths and North Beach are minutes from campus.
• Local residents and students mingle in downtown’s great restaurants, laid-back cafes, music clubs, and funky shops.
• Everyone enjoys the city’s many festivals and street carolers, jugglers, mimes, etc.
• From campus, it’s only 90 minutes to Montréal, three and a half hours to Boston, and five to New York City—great destinations for weekend getaways.

Active

With 160 cloudless days per year, lots of Champlainers play outdoors. Favorite activities:

• KeyBank Vermont City Marathon and Relay
• Skiing and snowboarding competitions (Champlain students won the 2007 Battle for Burlington on the slopes.)
• Hiking or mountain biking nearby trails
• Caving, downhill and X-country skiing, ice hockey, kayaking, mountain and rock climbing or whitewater rafting through Champlain Recreation & Fitness

Hands-on

• Internships enable students to influence people throughout the state: Read about Lindsay Johanson’s internship with Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility.
• Champlain students also bring the world to our state: Read how Emily Howland ’09 is helping to attract Chinese tourists to Vermont in the Spring 2007 Champlain View.
• Champlain College Center for Digital Investigation educates Vermont police officers, images digital evidence for the city and prepares students for government and corporate internships.

Global

Champlain faculty travel abroad to work on global issues:

• Professor Scott Baker (International Business and Social Sciences) volunteers with a non-governmental organization (NGO) assisting schools in Africa’s Niger Delta.
• Baker, with coauthor Edward R. McMahon, published Piecing a Democratic Quilt? Organizations and Universal Norms, which assesses how regional organizations around the world are working to foster democratic reforms in their member states.
• Professor Tim Brookes, director of the Professional Writing program, formed “Writers Without Borders” and has traveled to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to write The End of Polio? Behind the Scenes of the Campaign to Vaccinate Every Child on the Planet (with Omar A. Khan, M.D.), and to south China to research Behind the Mask: How the World Survived SARS.
• Michael Wilkinson and Jonathan Rajewski, Co-Directors of Champlain College Center for Digital Investigation, conducts leading-edge research via the Web, which crosses many borders.
• Professor Gary Scudder coordinates the Global Modules Initiative, which links Champlain classes with universities around the world. Joint course discussions allow both groups of students to explore such issues as terrorism.