Leaving the everyday routine of classroom life before daybreak, 11 students piled into two packed vans in search of a hands-on learning experience. They drove over 17 hours to a place where their class time would consist of hiking the Appalachian Mountains, painting houses and exploring the great outdoors of Kentucky.

Students taking Prof. Laura Goldin's (ENVS) Environmental Health and Justice course traveled to Harlan, Ky. on Sunday, Oct. 23 for a weeklong immersive experience in Environmental Studies. The class is one among a variety of Justice Brandeis Semester courses that aim to provide students with real-world experiences.

In a state notorious for using the environmentally destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining, a form of surface mining that requires the removal of the summit of a mountain to access coal seams, the JBS students hiked the Appalachian Mountains to witness the damage firsthand. They visited a museum devoted entirely to coal mining and met with a number of people in the community to learn about different ways in which mountaintop removal mining has affected the lives of the locals.

"Fifty percent of our energy is fueled by coal, and here we were going to the source of the coal and spending time in communities that are suffering by the way it is being removed from the ground. … It was truly an amazing experience," Goldin said.

Upon arriving in Harlan, the class began by taking a hike through the Appalachian Mountains, one of the oldest mountain ranges on earth. To highlight the difference between natural beauty and human-caused devastation, the students then visited a site that had undergone the mountaintop removal process.

"You could just see the juxtaposition between what something should look like and what [humans] created," said Sam Porter '14, who also referred to the trip to Kentucky as "mind-blowing." The class then visited a coal mining museum, which outlined the history of the coal mining industry in Kentucky and had a mock coal mine that visitors could enter.

Despite the negative effects of the coal mining process, the class was careful to present itself as a group of students interested in learning about coal mining and not there just to critique coal mining and its environmental consequences, according to Ariana Berlin '14.

"When you go down to somewhere like this as an activist group, you can't let people know exactly what you are doing. The coal mining industry is life; families in this area [of Kentucky] are able to have food because of coal mining. If you tell them you are against coal mining, they won't talk to you," she said.

The JBS students got to know a number of people in the community, including a priest who spoke about the connection between the environment and the Bible, a couple who had been ostracized from the community for their anti-mountaintop removal stance and an elderly woman whose house they painted one day of their trip.

"You hear abstractly about what strip mining is, and you might see a picture of it, but you never get to go hang out with the people whose lives it has actually affected. I know I would never have that experience if not for the JBS," said Emily Peterson '13, who added that the weeklong trip to Kentucky played a large role in helping the class connect with each other on a more personal level.

"The trip to Kentucky was my favorite part [of the JBS] so far. It was a big factor in forming relationships with other students because of the amount of time we had to spend together away from campus," she explained.

A double major in International Global Studies and Anthropology, Peterson said that, although she is not an Environmental Studies major like many other students in the class, she chose to take the JBS because it sounded like a valuable alternative to regular classroom learning.

"As an IGS major, I was interested in how environmental and human rights work, and this course was an opportunity to be involved in both. … Getting to interact with so many different people and groups has been amazing; it is such a different way to learn," she said.

Though students have returned to campus from their Kentucky trip, they have already begun work on their next hands-on project to continue their experiential learning outside the classroom this semester.

The JBS class will be studying toxic exposure for the remainder of the semester by investigating exposure levels of workers in various nail salons in the Boston area.

"The materials used in nail salons are known to be highly toxic, especially in terms of reproductive health effects. Most are endocrine disruptors and they have not been regulated out of the market," Goldin explained.

The class currently plans to investigate 20 salons but hopes that number will rise to as many as 50. Over the coming weeks, the students will visit each salon and attempt to devise better ventilation methods to lower prolonged exposure levels among workers.

"These chemicals are not going to be taken off the market anytime soon, so we are trying to figure out what can be done to protect these workers," Goldin said.

Last offered in summer 2010, this semester is only the second time that the Environmental Health and Justice JBS has been offered.

According to Goldin, the course was offered during the school year this time to allow a greater number of interested students to enroll in the course, as well as to extend the class to a full 13 weeks so that students can accomplish more.

"Learning really happens when you are getting deeply engaged in the subject by interacting with the community. When you do this, the issues around people, soil and water become real," Goldin said.

"We are not just trying to create solutions, we are working with people on the ground to do so," she said.

The Environmental Health and Justice JBS will likely be offered again in either summer or fall 2013, according to Goldin.

"I have definitely gained a greater understanding and appreciation for Waltham and the community," Porter said.

"We are kind of in a bubble at Brandeis, isolated from a very rich population. Working with [so many] community partners in the Waltham area allows us to give back," he said.