Located in the heart of New York’s Finger Lakes region, on beautiful Seneca Lake, the Environmental Studies Summer Youth Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges offers a two-week, college-level interdisciplinary program for talented high-school students. The program is designed as an introduction to a variety of environmental issues and perspectives on nature and our environment. ESSYI provides students with an understanding of the different perspectives and disciplines from which a person can explore the environment and environmental issues. This experience often enables ESSYI alums to make much more informed decisions about majors, minors and other interests in college.

You will conduct research with faculty members in a variety of locations: on the HWS William F. Scandling (a 65-foot vessel on Seneca Lake), in streams, quaking bogs, the Adirondack Mountains, and the Colleges science laboratories. Working in the field, in laboratories, in classrooms, and on a four-day camping trip, you will explore a range of topics in environmental policy, economics, and ethics, and come to see the natural world through the eyes of artists, historians, philosophers, and scientists.

• Are you passionate about the environment? 
• Do you want to make a difference in your community?
• Are you ready to reimagine your relationship with the environment?
• Do you want to explore the myriad of college majors and minors related to environmental studies?
• Are you ready for a life changing experience?

If you’ve answered yes to one or more of these questions, then ESSYI is for you!