Course of Study

The foundation of our program is established by our 1st Year Apprenticeship Program which paves the way for our 2nd Year Apprenticeship Program for those individuals wanting to extend their botanical, wildcrafting and herbalism education. A Third Year Clinical Internship and Alumni Field Trips are available to qualified students.

2025 will be our 41st year, and in the future, we will be accepting less students and running less groups per week. We eventually will focus on only teaching alumni classes and the clinical program.

The Columbines School of Botanical Studies offers a unique educational program ranging from entry level lectures in community herbalism to a three year program including botany, ecology, wildcrafting, plant pharmacy, physiology, pathophysiology, and clinical herbalism. Operating for over three decades, we specialize in field programs where the majority of the classes are outside with the plants for a truly ‘hands on’ experience.

Students may follow two tracks through three years of study: the Apprenticeship Track or the Lecture-Only Track.  During the full Apprenticeship, students enjoy both hands on fieldwork and traditional lectures.  Students experientially learn field botany, ecology, and wildcrafting techniques while defining their relationship with nature. The lecture component provides the inside classroom environment required for note taking and lecture-based learning. All lectures are on Zoom. When it is appropriate, we will start in-person inside lectures with Zoom option.

Columbines School awards a Certificate of Completion for each year of the Apprenticeships or Lecture-Only programs.

In addition to our core curriculum, Columbines School of Botanical Studies offers additional supplemental elective coursework for our Apprentices. These courses are not required to obtain the First or Second Year Certificates of Completion.