Gaia University is creating a new profession: "world-changer". We hold a safe space for people to learn and to develop their potential to change the world. The future of this planet depends on people learning to act as self-directed, self-responsible members of the community ‘Earth’, with open minds and open hearts.

All the trainings I have done and the skills I have developed are funneled into my work in Gaia Action Learning Academy. It is the conflation of a lifelong learning and implementing process. I love the combination of inner work with the creativity of designing workshops and organizing. The personal advising process and my work together with a network of passionate and exceedingly aware people is highly rewarding, supporting my own life visions and goals.

I heard about Gaia University in 2004 and I was immediately hooked. In 2006 I was initiated as an advisor and began to develop Gaia Southeast. My skills and experiences with fair share and earth, people, and self care, help me with my advising and conscious designing. This broad tool kit enables me to take an integrative approach to supporting associates.

Totally inspired in my engagement with life and dedicated to a regenerative way of living, I am passionate about combining my holistic world-view and whole systems and whole person design approaches into my advising. My greatest inspirations are to live my values, manifest my passions, and to contribute to healing the self, society and the planet. I’m also committed to empowering others to connect with their own core values, passions and life purpose, and to help them access the appropriate resources, conscious action management steps, and the clear articulation of possible life designs - towards manifesting their highest potential.

I love to support, collaborate, create, contribute and engage with people. Advising fulfills me on these many levels.

When I found out about Gaia University, it felt to me like a dream come true. Finally – a model of learning and exploring that offers the utmost freedom and challenge to chart my own path, and at the same time, the opportunity to call upon and receive advice and feedback on all aspects of this action learning approach from experts.

It has been such a deeply enriching experience to integrate the mental, physical, emotional, practical and personal – in short, all aspects of my life – and make them essential parts of my inquiry.

The combination of peer and advisor support proved to be the right training ground for learning documentation and growth in my occupation as a mentor. Although studying meant hard work, it soon became clear that along with studying came freedom and creativity in the learning and designing processes of my own projects.

Perhaps what I appreciate most about being an advisor at Gaia U is listening to people’s stories. My best role is really that of a questioner. The deepest mentoring is not giving advice or assignments, but listening and helping people to uncover their gifts. The right questions can help people discover where their real curiosity lies, what their sacred questions are, how to move forward with their life ambitions and how to live in their highest integrity – while taking care of themselves, their communities and their relationship with nature.

It has been such a powerful experience to weave Gaia University’s core principles and models into my own thinking, and then see the organization have the agility and openness to weave aspects of my thinking into its own emergent design. It is a co-creative process. I appreciate that Gaia University is an organization for action-learning that is being 'action learned', that is, it changes based on what we co-learn over time. This is so hopeful. Most conventional Universities do not change that quickly, or with as much ease and grace.

Gaia University has given me the opportunity to design the life of my dreams in a practical way. My advisors take the well-being of my whole life into account as we design my year. It's the perfect combination of freedom and support.

Gaia University has created an extremely effective model for learning. It’s the opposite of cramming for a test and regurgitating information – and then forgetting the information once the test is over. Gaia U supports you to follow your passion and incorporate your learning into your life.

Have you ever been sitting in a classroom and asked yourself, 'When am I ever going to use this information in the real world?' I haven’t once asked myself that question during my time at Gaia U. That’s because my classroom is the world, and my curriculum is learning to be an effective world-changer.

I don't need to wait until I get out of school to be able to change the world – I can do it right now!

Gaia University has connected me to a dynamic network of world changers who provide deep inspiration and support. It gave me the opportunity to earn a diploma while simultaneously developing a sustainability education business.

With the support of Gaia University I have organised my own learning for ecosocial regeneration. This has enabled me to learn, in action, while developing a world changing project.

I feel more connected and resilient than ever. From the relationships that have formed with my neighbors as we explore how to reinvigorate a local economy, to the bioregional family that is growing around us and organizing for food security, to the Permaculture Institute that is stepping up to lead the transition in my country.

Through Gaia University I am part of a global movement organizing for a paradigm shift, looking to leverage our global interconnectedness to accelerate local transformation.

My Intergrative Ecosocial Design program with Gaia U has been a juicy catalyst for personal and professional growth. I’ve always been a process geek, and where can you find a University that appreciates and celebrates descriptive processes and not just data?

With the help of advisors and fellow associates, I have gained knowledge about many different levels of design; from emotional to intellectual to visionary. The program has opened up a world of connections, to inspiring permaculture projects, social experiments and visionary infrastructure. With Gaia U I feel connected to the larger community of world-changers.

My life has changed! A new circle began when I became a Gaia U associate. I’ve turned the page and now I’m developing my ecological intelligence as an integrative ecosocial designer. Never before have I had these feelings of connection or this level of consciousness about my acts and thoughts. Gaia U is part of my life and my growth. It is not just a University, is the solution for the problem.

Gaia University offered me the perfect marriage between creative academic freedom and nurturing support. I felt completely able and inspired to design my own curriculum, while being sustained and looked after by a caring group of peers and advisors. It is the first and only higher learning institution I have found that promotes this dynamic balance.

My experience at GU was as much a shift in my perception as it was an education. This profound movement towards a higher level of thinking and understanding has resonated deeply within my core. The concepts and philosophies introduced to me by through Gaia U have joined me on my personal and professional journeys towards planetary sustainability and ecosocial regeneration.

Gaia University allowed me to learn at the speed of life. Engaging in action learning with the support of mentors and peers is a powerful way to gain skills and learn truly important lessons that cannot be taught in a classroom.

Gaia University is really a revolution disguised as a university. By working with other engaged individuals on projects of strategic importance to heal ecosystems and cultures, and sharing the learning, lessons, and best practices, Gaia U is creating regeneration, cooperation and empowerment on a global scale.

After attending a conventional college and obtaining a 4-year degree, I was barely ready to engage in the kind of learning and practice that Gaia University offers. Gaia U is not for everyone! You have to be self motivated, self aware, visionary and practical to succeed in the arduous task of engaging in strategic project work and documenting it for yourself and others. This is quite possibly the most challenging degree program you could ask for. Be prepared to grow to meet the challenge.

Gaia University has allowed me to craft a relationship of integrity with the world and with myself. Through my Gaia University learning pathway, I deepened my understanding and practice of permaculture, and began delving into the intricacies of regenerative education.I am now utilizing skills such as group facilitation, curriculum development, organizing and coordinating group projects. Thanks to Gaia University, all of my projects are firmly grounded in the ethics of permaculture, and the organizational designs and business plans that I am actively unfolding are designed to weave together into a seamless project for strategic ecosocial regeneration.

When I heard about Gaia U's master's Program, I was immediately intrigued. I had already been actively pursuing self-education in the 'school of life' for more than ten years, after leaving a master's program that I felt was too restrictive and narrow-minded to offer the diverse, hands-on training essential to a rapidly changing world. I knew what I was already doing could be immediately reframed as a GU learning pathway, and, now I had a new word for it – 'Action Learning!'

GU helped me to regard my life’s path not only as a legitimate course of study, but as an activity vital to the creation of a truly sustainable and healthy culture. I was given the support, the tools, and perhaps most importantly, the language to shape what I was most passionate about into a master's degree.

I am thrilled to offer to Gaia U associates the same outstanding advising services that I received during my own program. As an advisor, I take a highly personal and poetic approach, respecting the uniqueness of each associate and their individual learning pathway. I welcome and encourage artistic, outside-the-box project designs and always emphasize the importance of self-care and embodied experience for the health of my advisees and their work in the world.

My GAIA University experience has been extremely rewarding. The process of working on my open topic master's degree evoked more reflection from me on my life's work than I ever imagined. The encouragement and instruction I received was invaluable - and I definitely felt it was worth all the effort when I read the evaluation from my external reviewer, who said I deserved more than one master's degree for the body of work presented. Thank you GAIA!

"Gaia University has allowed me to continue on a vision that I obtained several years ago. I was actually looking for a school where I could deepen my spirituality, when I can across Gaia University. While it's not defined as a spiritual school, the ways of Gaia U allow people to learn and work on all levels, including spiritual. I found Gaia U to be useful integrating my beliefs into a permaculture environment."

"Gaia University is an incredible way to learn! It's so amazing when I see the results of an Action Learning Process. It's like I am looking at a project from above at times, while also having an intimate connection with every detail. Before starting Gaia U, I was often able to see the big picture, without working on the details. I would just let it sort itself out. Now, I feel like I can do both. I can give the details my full attention, without geting sucked into them. In my opinion, that has made me successful and has met my needs for understanding and sharing. Go Gaia U!"

"Gaia University has supported me in truly committing to align the way I spend my time with my values. Before joining Gaia I was challenged in balancing my personal development with my professional development. I felt as though the conventional academic systems that I was involved with did not allow me to honor both, and segmented my projects from my "learning" [academics]. Since joining, I've been able to integrate my learning and my work into one cohesive lifestyle. Gaia has helped me to design and articulate my life intentions and pathway design so that I can fully utilize every moment. I am naturally a reflective person, but Gaia has encouraged me to bring more diligence and variety into my reflective practices. It has also connected me with a diverse set of peers that have become close friends and collaborators. When I'm with other Gaia Associates and Advisors my experiences are deeper and more vivid."