The water churned along the walkway of the GulfQuest/National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico next to the Mobile River in Mobile, Alabama. Pockets along the river were filled with branches, leaves, and brackish detritus that pooled next to sea vessels that had been docked for what looked like more than a year.
In this final post of the winter 21-22 term, Proctor en Segovia students write about just how much their perception of the world, their place in it, and themselves changed over the course of just one trimester abroad, in Segovia, Spain. They reflect on personal growth, forming deep relationships with strangers, and developing a sense of place while far from home.
European Art Classroom teaches each student how to be an avid traveler, as we are constantly immersing ourselves in various cities that hold new cultures, languages, and cuisine. As Florence, Italy was the third and final weeklong trip, each of us had the routine down to a tee.
Proctor’s Winter Ocean Classroom program took on a new theme this year as we joined forces with the MET School of Providence, Rhode Island and Sailing Ships Maine to design a shared trimester at sea program that would sail from Charleston, South Carolina around Florida to Mobile, Alabama. Along the way, students from Proctor and the MET School studied historic Southern ports, involuntary servitude, and the lasting impact of slavery on both economic and social systems throughout America.
Time really flew when I came to realize that it was the second to last week of our journey here in France. When I first knew that I would be the one writing our blog this week, I was worried—things happened too fast to get ready.
Proctor Academy's winter 2022 Mountain Classroom program has come to an end after ten weeks of exploring, adventuring, learning, and bonding as a group. The off-campus experience is like none other, pushing students so far outside their comfort zone that individuals learn to rely on each other, and to understand fully the impact of their individual actions on the well-being of the group. For this Mountain Classroom group, like all groups, that learning has laid a foundation for the rest of their lives. Read more from Colin '22 and Calista '22 in these final reflections from the term.
Ciaran ’22 reflects on the Proctor en Segovia group’s final long excursion of the term, to Sevilla and Córdoba and the southern region of Andalucía. Coursework in Proctor’s off-campus programs employs place-based learning, and students explore connections between course material and experienced history, culture and, of course, language. In the case of Proctor en Segovia, this learning occurs in the home base of Segovia (Castilla y León) but also in several of Spain’s distinct regions when students travel on excursions.
I will be graduating in less than 100 days. This monumental transition has been making me reflect on my time at Proctor and it’s helping me seize every single day here on European Art Classroom. No other school has a program like this in the entire world.
