Welcome to the Growing Connections website! Check out the courses, read about how the students are applying what they’ve learned, watch them lend their hands at a local farm, and meet the faculty. “I love the way Growing Connections functions as a space to connect academic history and theory with hands-on agricultural practice,” says Erica Hannickel, Assistant Professor of Environmental History. “Students become better writers and critical thinkers, and yet also immediately realize their own abilities in applying what they’ve learned to  multiple projects in sustainable agriculture around the Lake Superior region.”

Growing Connections, one of three Connections programs at Northland College, is a nine-course block that uses the lens of agricultural studies to give students all of the liberal education requirements they need. The courses offered through this program are focused topics connected by a common theme. This program is built to give students a broad base with which to understand and live within our food system in a responsible manner.

Students in Growing Connections know the importance of being in touch with the food system — knowing where their food comes from, how it was produced, how it affects their health, and how their food choices affect the rest of the world. Says Timothy Ziegenhagen, Associate Professor of English, “It’s all about bringing different ways of thinking together — and bringing people together too.”