Admissions

Lake Forest, Ill. – Former Vermont Secretary of Natural Resources Bren Whittaker will discuss how older and less-fashionable ways of making a living can spur new career ideas at Lake Forest College on October 15 at 7 p.m. in the McCormick Auditorium. Whittaker’s presentation, “Bringing the Rural Economy Home: The old ways become new again,” is free and open to the public.

For more information, please contact 847-234-3100.

Whittaker has taught students at some of the nation’s top colleges – Harvard, Brown, and Brandeis among them – about the rural economy and its significance to students preparing to navigate the current urban economy. Whittaker, who has degrees in forestry and divinity, has held the positions of Energy Director and Secretary of Natural Resources for the State of Vermont.

“Historically, economic downturns have presented themselves as opportunities for creative and opportunistic thinkers,” says Environmental Studies Chair Glenn Adelson. “Whittaker’s ideas that we must imagine alternatives to what were previously the standard methods of putting a career together should be particularly poignant for our today’s college students.”

For the past fifty years Bren and his family have lived on a former 1950s-era dairy farm and forest in the most remote county in Vermont (the “most rural” state according to the U.S. Census). To do this, he and his wife, Dorothy, have had a variety of careers and jobs. A thirty-year farm effort of vegetable production, timber harvest, and Christmas-wreath business has accompanied their time as teacher, ordained clergyman, professional forester, political appointee in government, magazine publisher, and U.S. Army soldier.

For the past eighteen years, conservation biology classes from Harvard University, Brandeis University, Brown University, and Wellesley College have toured the family’s lands, sharing experiences and life goals.

Lake Forest College is a national liberal arts institution located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The College has 1,400 students representing 45 states and 69 countries.

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Will Pittinos '06
847-735-6177
pittinos@lakeforest.edu