Student Life & Community

Sustainability & Gardening

At Global Schools for Starseed and Urantian Children and Teens, students learn to support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality. They learn that resources are finite, and should be used conservatively and wisely. One example is our on-campus water harvesting as well as other aspects of water conservation. Students gain a growing awareness about protecting not only the land that nourishes us, but the whole planet.

Many varieties of natural GMO-free vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, and flowers are cultivated on the surrounding acres of our campus. Students are afforded the opportunity to learn natural gardening practices like composting and soil maintenance, seed saving, planting, greenhouse utilization, crop maintenance, safe alternative pest-control, weeding, harvesting, and much more. Gardening is one of the most therapeutic experiences for people, so our students have the dual benefit of learning valuable life-skills, while also enjoying the meditative peace of a calming garden. Versatility, poise, and awareness are paramount in the success of a garden.

Global Awareness

As an international school, GSSU does much to help students become more aware of cultural differences across the globe where people have different beliefs from our own. GSSU helps students to foster the willingness to recognize and value these differences and work to understand them in deeper ways. An ability to understand, respect, and work well with people from diverse cultures is increasingly important for our interconnected world. The environment and ways of GSSU naturally creates and grows global citizens who are open to those from other countries, cultures, and religions. GSSU recognizes that our society is transforming rapidly and with this growing and changing era, there is an urgent need to include global awareness issues in formal and informal training so the upcoming younger generation will move and work much more easily in diverse social settings.

The idea behind global awareness is to create global citizens who are open to those raised in different countries, cultures, and religious settings. For GSSU teachers, it’s an opportunity to open students’ eyes to how everyday decisions in their own lives can impact the lives of people around the globe.

Service to Others

Along with creating Global Awareness, learning the value of service to others is one of the most important goals of GSSU. Instilling an empathetic worldview and personally identifying themselves as planetary citizens where we become one planetary family enables our students to serve more effectively, to give to others, and help shape a new world for tomorrow.

Parent Participation

GSSU greatly encourages parent participation in the education process of their children. Parent involvement creates an awareness and understanding not only about their child’s school work, but GSSU also encourages consistent communication with teachers about their child’s progress. Many of the teaching staff are also parents who have children either presently attending GSSU or have children who graduated from GSSU.

Health and Safety

GSSU supports health and safety to ensure the prevention of illness and injuries. Workshops are frequently given to the teaching staff to keep them up to date in CPR and other areas so the teaching staff can stay tuned into the daily needs of their students. GSSU strives to prioritize safety at all times. Students need to learn certain practices and feel safe from not only bullying from other students, but also issues with weather conditions, and other potential dangers inherent in a desert outdoor environment.

Natural Meals

Students eat lunch within the two large dining halls attached to the commercial kitchen, also utilized by the EcoVillage community, or outside at picnic tables in various aesthetic gardens. Meals are all natural and GMO-free, usually consisting primarily of ingredients grown right on the land.

Libraries

Global Schools for Starseed and Urantian Children and Teens has on-campus libraries where students are encouraged to nurture intellectual and scientific curiosities and are empowered to read in their quest for any knowledge desired. Any topic of interest to a student is supported by making materials available. Many donations of books are given to support our school. The libraries on campus keep expanding and are an unfolding blessing to all of us.

Events

Students are almost always invited and encouraged to participate in events, which can include presentations of their academic work, musical performances, theater performances, and otherwise to engage with an audience. Events help students to experience expression before wide audiences in public speaking, poetry readings, and more. The familiarization of larger group interactions in events provides the opportunity to increase confidence, public speaking skills, self-respect, and a healthy understanding of personal relationships on various levels.

Sports and Activities

The weather is perfect, where GSSU is located, for outdoor activities all year. Our gym is the great outdoor environment surrounded by beautiful Southern Arizona mountain ranges. Sports activities include basketball, football, soccer, volley ball, horseback riding, bike riding, jogging, hiking, dancing and more. Indoor games are also popular, especially chess competitions, ping pong, and more.