A semester school is a school that complements a student's secondary education by providing them with the opportunity to step out of their regular school for half an academic year and step into a uniquely different educational setting while continuing their required academic studies. [1] [2] The academic curriculum at semester schools tends to be college preparatory, interdisciplinary, and experiential. [3] [4] [5]
Attending a semester school can:
The first semester school was Milton Academy's Mountain School which opened in 1984 in Vershire, Vermont. Since then more than a dozen additional semester schools have opened across the United States of America and in other countries. The list of opening dates below shows the growth in semester schools over time and their geographic diversity.
Vershire is a town in Orange County, Vermont, United States, created under Vermont Charter of August 3, 1781. The population was 672 at the 2020 census. The name Vershire is a portmanteau of Vermont and New Hampshire.
NOLS is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms. It was previously known as the National Outdoor Leadership School, but in 2015, this label was retired in favor of the independonym "NOLS". The "NOLS" mission is to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment. NOLS runs courses on six continents, with courses in a variety of wilderness environments and for almost any age group.
Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. The term is not interchangeable with experiential learning; however experiential learning is a sub-field and operates under the methodologies of experiential education. The Association for Experiential Education regards experiential education as "a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities". Experiential education is the term for the philosophy and educational progressivism is the movement which it informed. The Journal of Experiential Education publishes peer-reviewed empirical and theoretical academic research within the field.
Green Mountain College was a private liberal arts college in Poultney, Vermont, at the foot of the Taconic Mountains between the Green Mountains and Adirondacks. The college was affiliated with the United Methodist Church and offered a liberal arts undergraduate education with a focus on the environment, and some graduate degrees. For part of its history it was a women's college. It was founded in 1834 and closed at the end of the 2018–19 academic year.
Southern Vermont College was a private college on the 371-acre (1.50 km2) former Edward Everett Estate near Bennington, Vermont. The college closed in 2019.
Experiential learning (ExL) is the process of learning through experience, and is more narrowly defined as "learning through reflection on doing". Hands-on learning can be a form of experiential learning, but does not necessarily involve students reflecting on their product. Experiential learning is distinct from rote or didactic learning, in which the learner plays a comparatively passive role. It is related to, but not synonymous with, other forms of active learning such as action learning, adventure learning, free-choice learning, cooperative learning, service-learning, and situated learning.
Hebron Academy, founded in 1804, is a small, independent, college preparatory boarding and day school for boys and girls in grades six through postgraduate in Hebron, Maine.
Proctor Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory boarding school for grades 9–12 located on 2,500 acres (10 km2) in Andover, New Hampshire. There are about 370 students.
The White Mountain School, often called White Mountain or WMS, is a co-educational, independent boarding school located in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1886 as St. Mary's School in Concord, New Hampshire, the school moved to its current location in 1936, situated just north of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Outdoor education is organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey wilderness-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges and outdoor activities such as hiking, climbing, canoeing, ropes courses and group games. Outdoor education draws upon the philosophy, theory, and practices of experiential education and environmental education.
The EcoLeague is a six-college consortium consisting of Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage, Alaska; Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin; New College of Florida in Sarasota, Florida; Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona; College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine; and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The Meeting School (TMS) was a co-ed boarding school for grades 9-12 based on the practices and principles of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It was located in Rindge, New Hampshire, United States, on a working organic farm with 142 acres (0.57 km2) of field and forest. It closed in 2011.
Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY), formerly Audrey Cohen College, is a private college in New York City. MCNY is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and consists of three schools: The Audrey Cohen School for Human Services and Education, the School for Public Affairs and Administration, and the School for Business.
The Robertson Scholars Leadership Program is a joint merit scholarship and leadership development program at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The scholarship offers participants a unique "dual citizenship" at both Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Approximately 25-30 students are selected from the pool of applicants to both universities.
The Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a non-profit organization, was the primary educational and support services resource for Deaf and Hard of Hearing residents in Vermont and surrounding areas. Headquartered at Brattleboro's Austine school for the Deaf, the Vermont Center was launched by the Austine School in 1998 and operated until 2014. The Austine School was one of four independent schools and twelve outreach programs through which the Vermont Center assisted thousands of Vermonters who had hearing loss.
Conserve School was a semester school for environmentally and outdoor minded high school students located in Land O' Lakes, Vilas County, Wisconsin, United States. For seventeen weeks students pursue a program of environmental studies and outdoor activities that are designed to deepen their love of nature, reinforce their commitment to conservation, and equip them to take meaningful action as environmental stewards.
The High Mountain Institute (HMI) is a non-profit educational organization located in Leadville, Colorado. Founded in 1995 by Molly and Christopher Barnes, HMI focuses on educating teenagers through interaction with the natural world of the American West and Patagonia, South America. The school offers semester and summer programs for high school students, gap year programming for high school graduates, and short programs for middle school students and adults.
Vermont Commons School is an independent college preparatory school located in South Burlington, Vermont, serving grades 6–12.
The Nativ College Leadership Program in Israel is a nine-month, post-high-school gap year program in Israel for mostly North American Jews. It operates under the auspices of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and draws its participants mostly from USY and Ramah camps.
James Cardinal McGuigan Catholic High School is a secondary school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is named after James Charles McGuigan, a Canadian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and the Archbishop of Toronto from 1934 to 1971. The school was founded by the order of the Franciscan Fathers, who recognized the need for a Catholic School in the Keele-Finch Community. It serves the Downsview neighbourhood of North York.