2027 Course
Location and dates
The 2027 Class will meet at Wells Reserve at Laudholm, Wells, Maine.
Class times are Tuesdays 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Class dates are:
JANUARY
Tues 1/5 (Snow date Wed 1/6)
Tues 1/12 (Snow date Wed 1/13)
Sat 1/16 (Snow date Sat 1/23)
FEBRUARY
Tues 2/9 (Snow date Wed 2/10)
Sat 2/13 (Snow date Sat 2/20)
MARCH
Tues 3/9 (Snow date Wed 3/10)
Sat 3/13 (Snow date Sat 3/20)
APRIL
Tues 4/13 (Snow date Wed 4/14)
Sat 4/17 (Snow date Sat 4/24)
MAY
Tues 5/11
Sat 5/15
JUNE
Tues 6/15
Sat 6/19
JULY
Tues 7/13
Sat 7/17
AUGUST
Tues 8/10
Sat 8/14
SEPTEMBER
Tues 9/14
Sat 9/18
OCTOBER
Tues 10/12
Sat 10/16
NOVEMBER
Sat 11/6
Course fee
The course fee will be $700. The course application process will include an opportunity for applicants to request financial assistance.
Health protocols
The course coordinators will determine any health requirements in accordance with the Maine CDC.
Volunteering requirement
In the year after the course, graduates are required to volunteer and report via the MMNP graduates’ website 20 hours of face-to-face teaching (not including prep time) for organizations offering nature education. Students set up their first volunteering commitments during the course. After the first year, graduates are expected to volunteer and report 10 hours per year.
Application
The online application will appear here on Sept. 1 and will close at 5 p.m. on Oct. 9. Late applications will not be reviewed. Admissions decisions will be emailed by Nov. 1.
MMNP welcomes all applicants and strongly encourages individuals from all identities and backgrounds to apply.
Admissions criteria
MMNP seeks students with the following characteristics:
- Basic knowledge of and ongoing curiosity about the natural world.
- Time available to fulfill course requirements.
- Demonstrated history of volunteering in the community.
- A strong interest in learning more about Maine’s natural world, and enthusiasm for sharing this knowledge with others.
- A clear goal for the course and for how to to give back through volunteering.
- All students will be required to have a gmail address (@gmail.com) or to have obtained one prior to the first class date.
Advice for applicants
If you wonder whether you have the time to attend the classes and fulfill the requirements, please give careful consideration to the significant commitments involved. In addition to attending every class, you must be able to devote many hours outside of class studying, collecting, observing in the field, and preparing specimens.
If you worry that you are too busy to do the work, MMNP respectfully asks that you not apply. Every year some students drop out after the course has started because they realize they do not have enough time. Dropouts are unfortunate because more people apply than the program can accept, and once the course is underway it is too late to offer a student’s spot to another deserving applicant. Click the arrows below to read student comments for a full understanding of the time commitment.
“The homework load and class time requirements were very demanding, and I had to steal time from or incorporate my nature studies with work, family, and other obligations. But what could be greater than to be “required” to spend more time in nature?”
“Before starting I didn’t have an accurate sense of the time the course would require. In doing the homework after the first class, it dawned on me that all the information presented in the classroom was intended as a gateway to my own explorations. I found I wanted to spend any time I had observing, sketching, and practicing. With every new topic, I’d start the process again of devoting whatever time I had to getting outside. I had to make the homework and classes a priority in my life to do justice to the course.”
“It is all so overwhelming for a while. The instructor kept saying that it’s all about layering, and it took me a while to get that. Now I realize that it’s really a lifetime of layering, and each discovery is a delightful new layer. What worked best for me was to take a couple of days off after the class to regroup. I always came away from class feeling like soooo much information had been crammed into a short period of time, and yet I loved learning about so many different topics.”
“The time commitment was as promised, substantial. The class time was scheduled and all incredibly well spent, but doing the homework was the most time-consuming piece, requiring planning and dedication. As with anything, the more time I put into it, the more I got out of it – in this case spiritually as well as intellectually. I love leading nature walks.”
“The expectations from the beginning were straightforward, and I appreciated the emphasis that the course was going to be a lot of work. It was also good to be told ahead of time that there was strictness about attendance and accountability for your work. This made the program feel serious. It was also helpful to know that there were lots of applicants, so it was a very precious thing to have a spot in the course!”
“When I first began, I had not appreciated how much extra time outside of class I would be required to spend on each of the topics. But having to study independently was great in the end, and I learned a lot as I kept finding new ways of discovering information about what we were studying. It’s just hard to know ahead of time what that is going to be like.”
MMNP appreciates your interest!