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Outdoor Academy Ardennes ("The House") 

Summer leadership development institute, year-round leadership coaching seminars, 

and other programs, curricula, and courses in Leadership and Environment.

 

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An academy in the outdoors, a most "classical" one...

 

In many of our School's programmes, for instance in  Environmental ("Green") Leadership, the courses are offered in online or hybrid learning mode, combined with in-residence courses (Summer institute). In the summer of 2004, at the time the main offices of our graduate school were still located in Brussels, the concept of a small outdoor campus was introduced, in the southern part of Belgium. 

 

Workshops, labs, lectures, and extracurricular activities are held in and around the botanical garden adjacent to an old mansion, surnamed "The House". The mansion is a former farm-lodge with historic oak-framed walls dating back to the 18th century. The entire scenery is picturesque, being embanked in a valley bordered with forests and rivulets. 

The garden's centennial trees contribute to a unique feeling of serenity, an ideal atmosphere for open learning. 

 

The site is situated in a hamlet found in the north-eastern Belgian Ardennes. [1]  

Nearby towns include Durbuy, a small city that has kept many of its medieval houses and streets; Manhay, where fierce WWII battles were fought in the winter of 1944; the village of Wéris with its 4000-year-old megaliths; and on the banks of the Ourthe river the town of  Barvaux, where the school's Ardennes East office is located since the end of 2009.  

 

The House, combining mansion and greens, expresses the root-meaning of the term 'campus' in its most original form, somewhat alike the grove academy the Greek philosopher Plato had founded more than 2400 years ago in Athens, Greece. At our outdoor site students and faculty from around the world share their passion for leadership, and their hopes for our global natural environments. 

 

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[1] The location is at 30 min from the Liège Guillemins international Thalys and local railway station: or 90 min by train (or car) from the centre of Brussels or national airport; from the Charleroi (Brussels South) airport; and from the Cologne and Bonn cities and airports (Germany). 

 

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