Mountain Classroom finished their month-long stint in Utah with a week on the San Juan River guided by Kay Harris of Canyon Expeditions. We gardened at the home of Bluff artist, Joe Pachak, and visited the Wolfman Panel in Butler Wash before pushing off on the river in their inflatable kayaks. After traveling through Colorado and visiting the Chico Basin Ranch this last week, we slept last night in Cody, Nebraska. Today we are heading to Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota to spend time with Proctor graduate JR White Hat.

After completing our primitive skills backpacking trip, Proctor Academy Mountain Classroom visited Smithfield's Hog Operations Headquarters in Milford, UT. We then went on to visit Morgan Family Dairy in Circleville as we immersed ourselves in studying large-scale agriculture. We were treated to a number of thunderstorms and rainbows at Otter Creek State Park, which we called home for most of the week before driving on to Moab. We left Moab for Bluff, Utah where we are headed rafting on the San Juan River for the next week with longtime Proctor friend, Kay Harris of Canyon Expeditions. 

Mountain Classroom has been on the road for three weeks. Most recently our adventures have found us traveling through remote parts of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. Our limited access to the internet means we are delayed in sharing stories from this part of our adventure with you, so thanks for your patience!  Below, we share thoughts on our rock climbing experience in Cochise Stronghold after getting acquainted outside of Tucson. Stay tuned for upcoming blogs on Grand Canyon backpacking and their hunter/gatherer experience near Boulder, Utah! 

Just as Friday’s student panel during Revisit Day highlighted the impact of a Proctor education, today’s conversation between visiting families and current students reinforced how important it is to allow yourself to be curious. Nearly every student on the panel articulated how his or her experience at Proctor has been one of redefinition. But why is this? What environmental factors allow for this type of uncharacteristic vulnerability among adolescents at Proctor?

The first day was a jetlag-drenched adventure, a whirling, overstimulating blur of sunlight and new food and French. There was nothing for it but to follow the Flemings and hope not to fall asleep standing.

Proctor's Mountain Classroom program reconvened for the Spring Term with a new group of students ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime over the next nine weeks. The group arrived in Tucson, AZ last week and headed to their first campsite at Gilbert Ray Campground. We oriented to our academic courses and the equipment that will play a large role in our lives for the next couple months: the bus, trailer, kitchen, tents, and food planning systems. While in Tucson we also enjoyed an afternoon at the stunning Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  Our next stop: rock climbing in Cochise Stronghold! Enjoy student reflections from the first week of the term below. 

After months of planning and four amazing days during which small groups of students spent time with one or two faculty members, Project Period is over. Throughout the week, Project Period Coordinator Patty Pond helped capture student reflections on what community means to them. You can hear a few of these snippets in the video below, but if you were present at Proctor's 3rd Annual St. Baldrick's Event, you felt the Proctor (and local Andover) community in action.