NSEE Heritage Talks

Preserving the History of Our Society

In an effort to both preserve and build appreciation of the history of the National Society for Experiential Education, the NSEE Board of Directors initiated a campaign in 2014 to capture the insights and personal memories of founders, pioneers and early members of NSEE. Through a process of both live and online conversations, NSEE is leading this initiative with a series of personal interviews of those men and women who came together in the 1970's and 80's to advocate for the infusion of high impact teaching and learning practices into K-16 education.

Together, and at the early meetings and conferences of our society, these educators forged the theoretical and practical paths toward what we call today experiential education. While their early focus was strongly upon internships--indeed, NSEE was called the National Society for Internships and Experiential Education until 1992--founding members developed both pedagogical theories and principles of good practice that also sustained service learning, cooperative education, community engagement, education abroad, undergraduate research and other forms of experiential learning that developed in subsequent years.

The goal of this project is to provide an opportunity for early NSEE members to share with current members and friends their thoughts on the origins of experiential education in the 1970's, its evolution in later decades, and the particular traits and attractions of those people, friends and colleagues who sustained interest and research in the field of experiential education.

For more information or to learn how you can become involved, contact [email protected].