This week and next, we will wrap up our final classes and present final projects. With classes so close to being over it feels like the beginning of the end; however, we still have a lot packed into our final weeks\u2013it\u2019s not over yet! We\u2019ll spend a day this week looking for and learning about the wolves of Yellowstone, and after finals, we will embark on our last backcountry expedition: packrafting on the Dearborn River in Montana!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our time on the river will provide an ideal context to reflect on this indescribable, transformative experience. In our journals, around the fire, and even while in our boats we\u2019ll spend time writing and discussing what this experience has meant to us, how to share it with others, how to approach the transition home, how we\u2019ve grown and changed, and more. We spent a week at the beginning of the program for orientation, and we\u2019ll dedicate the same time and intention to the transition home because adjusting back will be just as transformative as adjusting to The Traveling School.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Already, the students have expressed feeling scared and sad to leave this experience and community behind, excited to see their loved ones waiting for them at home, and nervous about the transition. We\u2019ve talked about\u2013and will continue to process\u2013how this is expected and healthy to have such mixed emotions. It\u2019s a gift to have an experience that is hard to say goodbye to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, the Traveling School community does not disappear on May 20th. The students will get a chance to meet alumni of all ages on a Zoom call next week so that they can be welcomed into the very active and loving TTS alumni community. The alumni love and connection is something that personally convinced me how special this job was going to be before I started\u2013alumni reached out to me from far and wide to congratulate me on joining the faculty team, strangers and acquaintances told me stories of how TTS changed their life, and they even told me about TTS tattoos that they have!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This time of transition will undoubtedly be hard, but so much of it is bittersweet. Our lives\u2013the students, the teachers, and our family and friends\u2013will never be the same as before The Traveling School. But we will be the better for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With love,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Leah\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Upon returning from her Traveling School semester, Emma Owens realized a passion for learning in classrooms without walls. \u00a0Now, a student at Fairhaven college, Emma plans on taking her passion to India. As a recipient of the Adventure Learning Grant, Emma will travel around India studying their education system. <\/p>\r\n\r\n \u201cMy project is a culmination of my passions: the promotion of equitable education, access to schooling for marginalized communities and the analysis of transnational colonial influences. The adventure learning aspect of this grant removes the inherent structured nature of higher education and allows recipients to freely explore, unhindered by traditional study. I believe that education is most powerful when it evolves to allow students to be fluid and curious within it. Adventure learning doesn\u2019t begin or end in a classroom, it is based on informative experience and enriching relationships<\/strong>,\u201d Emma said of her upcoming adventure. <\/p>\r\n\r\n In India, Emma will focus on studying the country\u2019s educational disparities. Poverty, gender, and the lingering influence of colonization have caused a gap in educational access in rural parts of India. For ten months Emma will travel through India, connecting with locals during homestays and learning about the educational opportunities available in rural villages. She plans to use the research and connections she makes in India as a catalyst for change when she returns to the United States, critically examines the complex issues surrounding education in India, and presents on her observations. <\/p>\r\n\r\n Her interest in experiential education stemmed from her semester in southern Africa. Her time with The Traveling School inspired her to apply for the Adventure Learning Grant so she could continue her education beyond university walls.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \u201cI felt stagnant in high school,\u201d Emma said, \u201cI combed through school college fairs for gap year or study abroad programs and stumbled across The Traveling School \u2014 a high school semester abroad program that posed a solution to all my frustration. This first taste of the world outside of my sheltered bubble was both shocking and intoxicating.<\/strong> For the first time in my life, I began to critically engage with the merits and serious inadequacies of public education and found myself fueled to act by my complete disillusionment.\u201d <\/p>\r\n\r\n Emma hopes her time with The Traveling School isn\u2019t limited to her semester as a student. Upon graduation she plans on applying for a Traveling School teaching position and sharing her love of adventure learning with future Traveling School students. <\/p>\r\n\r\n \u201cAttending The Traveling School was a pivotal experience for me as a student and has shaped my interest in experimental and alternative education that has led me to where I am today.\u201d <\/p>\r\n\r\n \u2014 Maddy Eglian, Development Assistant<\/em><\/p>\r\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/travelingschool.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Unknown.jpeg\")
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