“A Sense of Place” Senior Lecture Series

A student’s time here culminates in “A Sense of Place,” a senior seminar which explores the geology, biology, art, history, religion, and literature of the Mountain. This program includes monthly lectures and field trips, and interviews with lifelong Mountain residents. Students synthesize the experience through journals and presentations.

Seniors analyze their attachment to this locale by exploring aspects that make it unique. Several times during the year, from September through April, Sunday evening lectures are followed on Monday by small group investigations. Through fieldwork and personal interviews, students come to learn to value a commitment to a place. Oral presentations of group findings and individual journal entries provide students with the opportunity to reflect upon and reinforce what they have learned together.

It is our intent that students learn to transfer these ways of learning to other situations, leading them to insights of what is special about different places and about the greater world around them. This program culminates with a retreat to the Great Smoky Mountains in May. There, our seniors reflect on the past year and their plans for the future.

By intensely studying this area, their patch of turf, students develop the capacity to explore and appreciate future settings in which they will find themselves. They learn to value the enduring connections that link sense of place with sense of self. As we often say, "Our students will leave the Mountain but the Mountain will never leave them."