New England Expedition

Away But Home: A Writing Intensive Exploration
Locations: VT, NH, ME, & MA
For: Students Ages 15-18

What is home? What places, people, food, objects, songs, smells, ideas, and activities feel like home to you and why? As students and change-makers, why does it matter that we consider our relationships and responsibilities to the communities that we each call home? How do we, individually and collectively, build strong communities, and how do we react when those communities feel threatened? What does it mean to be from a place? And what pieces of that place do we take with us when we leave?

Trip Summary
This five-week writing-intensive expedition is designed to give you the opportunity to answer these questions for yourself as you explore how different individuals and communities in New England define, create, defend, and transform home for themselves.  You'll carry your home on your back as you hike through the mountains of New England; consider different perspectives on environmental, social, and economic justice as you meet and talk with people living in rural Vermont, coastal Maine, and downtown Boston; and learn about the histories, ecologies, and current struggles and success stories within these Northeastern states from the people who live there.  As you travel, you will work with our faculty to craft your own personal essay about what home means to you - a written piece that can be used as a college application essay, submitted to a magazine or other publication, or kept as a personal chronicle of your summer travel experience.      
Academic Courses Include
U.S. History, Natural Science, Writing, and Citizenship & Leadership

Highlights
  • Pull traps aboard a lobster boat on Casco Bay and talk with families who have been lobstering for generations in Maine.
  • Learn basic skills for backpacking and camping as you sleep under the stars in the mountains of New England.
  • Participate in intensive weekly writing workshops where you share your original writing, and give and receive feedback with other writers from across the United States.
  • Explore the diverse neighborhoods of Boston and learn about issues of social and environmental justice alive within the city today.
  • Weed garden beds, trim sheep hooves, and dig compost with farmers leading the local food movement in Vermont.
  • Visit varied college campuses across New England (including Harvard University, Sterling College, and the University of Vermont).
  • Work closely with a team of writing teachers as you craft a personal statement essay that examines your own identity and your relationship to the people, places, ideas, and objects that are home to you.​