Terrain V01 - Journal - Page 35
Sterling College | 33
Sterling in the
American Southwest
Wilderness Field Program
Written By
Klaus DeBoer ‘16
Like many students at Sterling College, I was drawn by the promise of experiential learning and the chance to get away from the
conventional methods of education, which had felt binding, stuffy,
and grounded in a worldview with which I didn’t resonate. Over the
course of my time at Sterling College, I worked with the faculty
to develop a major, entitled Natural Resource Stewardship, which
combined studies and experiences of the natural history of abiotic
and biotic systems, human cultures, and land stewardship.
During my final year at Sterling, I was zeroing in on classes and experiences to bolster my major. The Southwest Field Semester was
slated to run for the first time in over a decade in the spring of 2016.
I felt very drawn to the landscape, instructors, and the small group
camaraderie that would be had on the full semester of field based
learning, but it seemed out of reach due to the prior commitments I
had made to round out my major. However, my desire to accomplish
my education outside of conventional methods was as strong as
ever, and I could not help but feel untrue to myself when I thought
of staying the course of study on campus.