TUCSON, Ariz. — It may be surprising to hear that Prescott College was once ranked the No. 1 school in Arizona by the Princeton Review and the No. 1 school to learn about the world by USA Today.

That’s because you’ve probably never heard of Prescott College.

The college, tucked away in the small northern Arizona town of Prescott has a small enrollment but is known among the community for preparing students for dynamic careers in environmental and social fields with its out-of-the-box philosophy on teaching.

All student’s curricula are designed by students within certain guidelines based on two concepts: social justice and environmental elements, said David Greenwood, the operations coordinator at Prescott College’s Tucson center. Students work one-on-one with mentors in their chosen career fields instead of dealing with lectures and textbooks.

There’s always one common theme, though, Greenwood said, “It’s always geared toward the environment.”

The school’s almost-daily events on this April's calendar celebrate "Earth Month" by covering topics like green business and native plants.

"The calendar is to raise awareness and to really get people involved in activities that are focused on environmental sustainability and just to learn about things that affect the Earth,” said Ashley Mains, Prescott College's marketing and public relations associate.

“We’re one of the oldest environmentally-focused colleges at least in this state,” Mains said. “It does speak to our mission and what we represent, and the fact that we put 'Earth Month' together shows that we’re a leader in the community on environmental issues, and we want to continue to be a leader.”

Since the students, faculty and staff are so active in environmental causes, Greenwood and Mains said Prescott College ends up providing many environmental events and lectures.

“It sounds cliché,” Greenwood said, “but every day is Earth Day for us.”

“My job is to keep up with the students,” said Prescott College's President Dan Garvey, who was convinced of the College’s effectiveness when he realized that students were more interested in their education than he was.

After spending years teaching and administrating at major universities, Garvey found Prescott College’s hands-on way of teaching refreshing.

“This was the first place that I thought there was almost a chance that we were doing things right,” he said.

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The school stresses active learning-by-doing over passive learning through just lectures.

For example, students can participate in a program called the Ironwood Tree Experience to learn about sustainability practices, food systems, environmental education and the Sonoran Desert. Up to six college credits are available to students who work in this program helping kids ages 12 to 18 learn about their own health and wellness and how to voice their opinions on environmental and social needs.

“Students are interested in how experiential the program is," said Suzanne Dhruv, director of the Ironwood Tree Experience. "It’s not in a classroom, it’s not within four walls, it’s out in the community promoting that aspect and promoting real-life, meaningful jobs."

Even though students are allowed to create their own curricula, the Prescott College experience is still hard work, said Dhruv, who is a graduate of the college.

“It’s challenging and demanding," she said. "It takes that certain type of personality to get out in the community and ask for help.”

Social change is another big part of Prescott College and Garvey, who has a Ph.D. in social and multi-cultural foundations, emphasized this fact. He recently lectured on the change he thinks needs to happen to ensure environmental and social safety for the future.

Garvey pointed out that some believe we have already run out of environmental resources and that we’ve “passed the point of no return.” According to Garvey, young people under 30 are the first generation to actually understand that populations really could run out of resources.

This next generation, he said, has the task of restructuring society to use environmental, economic and educational engineers to the best of their abilities. That way, he said, the country will have better luck preventing natural disasters, like with Hurricane Katrina, and terrorist attacks, like 9/11.

“We are starting to understand that the way we’ve been doing things may not have been the best way,” Garvey said. “We’re on the brink of a renaissance.

“I put my money on the next generation — not solar panels."