Intersession 2010 - Reporting Back to the Community

Students have now been back on campus for a week and are in the middle of their Intersession presentations, after being off on their adventures for the past month. Here is a sample of the different Intersession projects students organized and participated in.

Senior Wally spent three and a half weeks in northern New Hampshire at the Loki Clan Refuge http://www.canineworld.com/lokiclan/ working with wolves and wolf-dogs who have been rescued and are at the Loki Clan Refuge as a last resort. Many of the animals have have abused or mistreated. In addition to cutting up a lot of meat scraps for the wolves, Wally also shoveled snow and performed odd jobs around the refuge. He reports having interacted with "a lot of cool wolves" and having demonstrated a strong work ethic.

Senior Victoria spent her Intersession in Ghana, working with children, many of whom are orphans. In addition to working with her students on various art projects and language skills, she also had a chance to learn a little of the local language Ewe and travel around the country, including a climb up Mount Afadjato.

Junior Liz and Senior Stephen spent their time at Koinonia, a Christian farm community in Americus, Georgia http://www.koinoniapartners.org/. Koinonia is the birthplace of Habitat for Humanity, the Cottonpatch gospels http://rockhay.tripod.com/cottonpatch/, Jubilee Partners, and the Prison Project. Stephen helped on the farm while Liz worked in the bakery; they both participated fully in the life of the community.

Junior James went to Key West, Florida to volunteer with Reef Relief, a global nonprofit environmental protection organization dedicated to education about the reefs and what individuals can do to help protect them and improve water quality. James helped to staff the center and gave tours of the facilities. While in Key West, James gained familiarity with the flora and fauna in the ecosystem of a Caribbean coral reef, and the pelagic zones of sea life and general water all across the planet.

Sophomore Hannah went to Charlotte, Vermont and worked on a project called 'What Is Art.' She did a week of photography and editing and learned the program Photoshop, a week of studying film making, and spending three days with three filmmakers. She then did a week of pottery at the Shelburne Art Center. Hannah ended with a week of working in a glass blowing studio. She reports "learning a lot about working with different kinds of people, and how to be flexible. Over all my Intersession was a good experience and made me really appreciate the different forms of art for what they really are. I hope to work more with different forms of what people consider to be art."