Proctor Academy's Mountain Classroom program transitioned back from Winter Break into the cacti-filled desert. Our first days were spent studying Wilderness First Aid in Arizona's beautiful Lost Dutchman State Park. Read more about their first week back below!
On our way out of Mississippi we stopped In Jackson to meet with lawyers at the Southern Poverty Law Center whose work focuses on the school-to-prison pipeline. Our next stop was in Bayou Sorrel, Louisiana where we spent the day with the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and Greg Guirard, a local legend who salvages old cypress logs. To finish up our time in the Southeast we ate lunch in New Orleans' French Market and chatted with William Most, a local civil rights lawyer. Enjoy Jon's reflection on our time in the Southeast!
John Ruskey and Mark "River" Peoples from the Quapaw Canoe Company showed us to an amazing week of paddling that Grayson '18 and Matt '17 have documented below. In our class time we explored James Kilgore's Understanding Mass Incarceration, Richard Grant's Dispatches from Pluto, and a nutritional analysis of prison diets. which allowed us to get to know the prison system through multiple lenses. Enjoy this second update from Mountain Classroom's first three weeks of the term!
Mountain Classroom began our winter trimester at the Morning Sun Mindfulness Center in Alstead, NH. After orienting the students to the bus, trailer, and living arrangements we all watched The Dhamma Brothers. This film started our first discussion on the term's guiding question: What are the components to leading a fulfilling life? In the Southeast, Mountain Classroom will be exploring the criminal justice system as an obstacle in the pursuit of fulfillment. Our first destination is canoeing on the Mississippi River with the Quapaw Canoe Company in Clarksdale, MS. Enjoy Jaz '17's reflections on our first week together!
Each trimester at boarding school brings with it transition; changes in the weather, new classes, sometimes a dorm swap. Life at Proctor involves more transition than most schools, however, as we welcome back thirty students from off-campus programs, and get used to life without thirty others who are embarking on a life-changing experience abroad during the winter months. These added transitions aren’t always easy, but having almost 20% of our student body transitioning between on campus and off each term breathes vitality into every corner of the community.
If you ask Proctor alumni to describe the most profound experience of their lives, they will most likely discuss a memory from one of Proctor’s five off-campus programs. Over the past five years, Proctor has expanded its off-campus experience to include two-week long summer service trips around the world. This summer Proctor will sponsor two Summer Service Trips: Guatemala and Rosebud, South Dakota. Learn more about these remarkable experiences below!
San Juan, Puerto Rico… November 19th… The end of Ocean Classroom Voyage 2016… As these students leave Roseway and fly back to their families, there is a range of emotions. There is incredible happiness in reconnecting with their parents, siblings and friends. There is also an element of sadness in leaving the ship that has been their home for the past nine weeks. There is a feeling of accomplishment; an inner knowledge that each one of them has done something special.
When I first applied to Proctor en Segovia, I did not realize that Segovia was just one small part of a much greater experience. It was not until I actually arrived in Spain that I became aware of the journey I was about to embark on. I came to the realization that Proctor en Segovia is just the title of the program, and it acts as a large doorway.
