About VSA / Staff
Academic Immersion
VSA gives rising eighth – 12th-grade students the opportunity to immerse themselves in one course of study for a one-week period. Each curriculum is designed around student involvement. Faculty incorporate students’ needs and interests into the lessons so that each class becomes a unique exploration. All courses are hands-on and project based. In all courses, students practice the critical skills of collaboration, critique, project planning and presentation.
We have gone to great lengths to ensure each class is fun, rewarding, intensive and hands-on … in short, awesome.
Sustainability and Entrepreneurship for Every Student
Two of the most important themes academically at Green Mountain College are sustainability and entrepreneurship. That is why our program curriculum features these concepts for all courses and sessions. All courses weave these two concepts throughout the curriculum. Seminars and evening sessions reinforce these two important concepts.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR – Luke Krueger
Luke is happy to return to Vermont to direct Vermont Summer Academy at Green Mountain College. Luke served as the resident playwright at Northern Stage in White River Junction. While there he headed up Project Playwright, an in-school program in which he taught playwriting to 5th and 6th grade students, who eventually saw their work brought to life by professional actors and directors from New York City. Luke’s love of education and building exciting summer programs has led him to serve as the director at sleep-away and day camps in New Jersey, Florida, New York City, and Virginia. Luke brings with him a wealth of educational experience as well. He has taught full-time at the college level for thirteen years at such schools as Arizona State University, Lake Forest College, Loyola University, and Northern Illinois University. The courses he has taught have included creative writing, literature, and theatre.
An accomplished playwright and author, Luke has had his plays performed across the country including New York and Chicago and is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America. In 2006 he served as the Emerging Writer in Residence at Penn State University. He is also the author of A Noble Function: How U-Haul Moved America. Currently, he is a visiting assistant professor of theatre at Northern Illinois University, where his most recent play, an adaptation of The Canterbury Tales was produced. Luke holds an MFA in playwriting from Arizona State University and a BA in English from Miami University (Ohio).
CULINARY ARTS HEAD CHEF – Melissa Greeley
Melissa graduated 1st in class with honors from The French Culinary Institute with a Culinary Arts Degree. Was hired by the School immediately upon graduation. Worked in groundbreaking farm to table restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Relish both NY times 3 star restaurants, Worked privately for various celebrities, politicians and socialites (Richard Gere, Tommy Hilfiger, Anne Bass to name a few). Worked as acting sous chef for former White House Chef. Executive Chef Matt Miller Culinary Productions. Executive Chef CampusNYC. Just named Executive Chef for DiBari Caterers (high-end off premise caterer).
WRITING – Alexander Goss
I am a pretty good-natured person with a huge respect and appreciation for everything that makes life so weird and amazing. The reason that I am in education is because I hope to inspire students to see the the world in a more creative and optomistic light through dialogue and motivation on individual and group levels. Being a student of GMC and a Vermonter, I also have a deep-rooted love for the Earth and am always amazed by what we can experience today and the story of how everything got here. My own writing reflects the way that I interpret the universe: skeptically and with a great deal of humor. Overall, I really just want to inspire people to be expressive individually while maintaining a conscious identity as one part of a magnificent whole community.