Metamorphosis Gap Semester

I found my time at Thoreau College very valuable because it taught me a lot of life skills I did not learn at a 4-year college, and it taught me a different way of being than I had experienced growing up in the very scientific and materialist culture of Silicon Valley. Prior to Thoreau College I thought that AI taking over the world and replacing humanity might be an okay thing, since we seem to be doing a fairly poor job at creating healthy societies and sustaining the earth. I left Thoreau College with the feeling that humanity has something unique and valuable to offer the world, and that human society has something unique and powerful to offer to the universe that we could unlock through cultural change and collective action.

As for the specifics of the program, it was full of philosophy, labor, and community activities, as well as art and good food (Viroqua has some seriously good food, trust me). Overall, I would recommend this program to anyone looking to learn more about agriculture, alternative philosophies to scientific materialism, or holistic education. Going beyond the classroom, Thoreau College teaches you how to live with other people, manage conflicts, and become an active part in shaping the curriculum and your own learning. Combining all of that with the numerous transformative and quieting trips into nature, I found Thoreau College to be a profoundly valuable experience.

I absolutely loved my time at Thoreau! This program is thoughtfully run and centers the student experience. You learn so much about land systems, community building, literature, philosophy, agriculture, food prep, you name it. 2 years after completing the program, I am still regularly (and gladly) in touch with the wonderful people I met during my time at here. I was initially hesitant about taking a gap year / trying something so far outside my realm of experience but I am incredibly grateful that I found my way to Thoreau. I cannot recommend it enough.

Thoreau College stands out as a program which is deeply connected to a thriving rural small-town community. Because of this, it's a great place to learn practical community-building skills as well as sustainable faring/gardening and folk crafts. During my time at Thoreau, some of my most valuable lessons came from meeting and speaking with eccentric farmers, artist, and teachers from the local community. This is a great program for artistic dreamers, outdoorsy oddballs, and everyone interested in the local and small-scaled.

Really fun activities where I learn to live with nature and not apart from it. I worried that I wouldn’t fit in or would be overwhelmed from the amount of people during the summer fieldschool program, but all the people were kind, and my roommates were so fun to be around that it sucks we don’t live close to each other. The readings gave me a new perspective on nature and growth, and all the activities we did showed how much can be done with community.

What I value most about this program is the attention to growth of the whole human spirit, head heart and hands. Unlike other educational experiences, this program facilitated and valued inner development and community building while we studied literature and a broad range of physical and artistic skills. This program is intensive but incorporates lots of time for reflection on what we're learning, about the natural world and ourselves. Every month we embarked on a 24 hour solo expedition in the beautiful woods of the driftless region, often with prompts for reflection. Those experiences were difficult at times, being alone with your thoughts can bring up issues or experiences you haven't worked through in your life that you may not have known you were avoiding, I would describe the solos as emotional, grounding, and empowering. This program was balanced between intensive educational experiences and time to integrate them.

As one of many people who wish to live simply, I took this course to learn to live in a way that nurtures all aspects of myself. I learned to live in community, to communicate, be seen and heard. I learned all sorts of practical skills such as roofing, gardening, bread making, fermenting (kimchi, kombucha, immune boosting fire cider, etc) and I had so much fun! I went on a 24 hour solo every month bringing only bare necessities in the quiet solitude of beautiful driftless seasons and landscapes. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything.

How do you review something that affected you so deeply you’re still catching up, and think you will be for years? How do you review something that is a picture of life? That moves with the seasons and takes you from one task to another in a rhythm that feels natural as breathing?
The last five months of my life have seen me engaging deeply and mindfully with my Humanity in ways I thought I had been in the past, but now don't believe I truly was. Thoreau College allowed me to open myself to possibilities I had written off, and to think about things in ways I never would have dreamed of. The program kept me guessing and filled me with wonder every day as my mind bent over new readings and rejoiced at the things sprouting in our garden. It held me in awe at feeling so small yet mighty on my solos in the woods, and so vast and connected when I looked up the star-bright sky of this small town I've grown to love. Thoreau College made me work deeply and vulnerably with people in ways I rarely have before; to form a strong and abiding community and love for them and with them that I believe will last a lifetime. Thoreau College taught me how to make a home, and how to live in it on every level as the most whole me I know how to be.