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Knox College Green Oaks Term 2022—Time to Apply

Mondays from November 29, 2021 to December 15, 2021

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The Knox Green Oaks Term is a spring term program offered once every two years, during which a dozen or more students reside at the DeWitt Brown Research Center of Knox’s Green Oaks Field Station and take courses in the arts, natural history and social science. Green Oaks, located half an hour’s drive from the main Knox campus, encompasses several different habitats including tallgrass prairie, old growth oaks, second-growth oak-hickory forest, strip-mined lands, lakes, and streams.

The program is offered every other spring (next time will be spring term 2022), with student selection taking place during the preceding fall term. During their ten weeks at Green Oaks, students are immersed in an interdisciplinary curriculum taught primarily by Knox faculty from three different departments and supplemented by guest speakers and field trips. At least one faculty member and one post-baccalaureate Program Assistant are in residence at Green Oaks at any given time during the program. The curriculum pursues an understanding and appreciation of Green Oaks as a natural and social setting as well as a context for artistic creativity. Students of the program have applied their experiences in diverse ways including Knox honors projects, postgraduate studies in a variety of fields, Peace Corps work, and employment in fields ranging from landscape design to public science education. Who’s Qualified?

Students of all academic interests and at all stages of their Knox education (including first-year students) are welcome to apply. There are no specific course preparation requirements, ideally applicants to the program should have some background in the arts, natural sciences or social sciences to enroll in one of the courses at the 300 level, and they should be genuinely motivated to study in all the areas of the program curriculum. Past students have praised their Green Oaks Term experience as a highlight of their Knox education, but it must also be said that the program is not for everyone. It requires a great deal of energy, versatility and self-discipline. Life in a close-knit cooperative community, where virtually every part of daily life becomes part of an integrated learning experience, is an exhilarating opportunity but one that necessarily means putting aside many of the accustomed diversions of ordinary American (and campus) life. Hence, it’s important that applicants consider seriously whether or not they are temperamentally suited to such a program. The program also takes place outdoors as often as possible and in all types of weather, with most field trips involving camping (equipment can be provided). Participants best suited for the Green Oaks Term are enthusiastic about outdoor learning.

Application forms can be found at: https://forms.gle/KtYJVPdTFSQU65u57