Outdoor Adventure
Group travel (abroad in australia) and Community Learning (a concept that claims students are better learners when members of a supportive community) are a part of the general mission of the Castle Rock Institute. We sponsor a study abroad program for college students that combines different outdoor adventure activities and college courses in the Humanities.
The Castle Rock Institute is a wilderness-based center for the Humanities affiliated with Brevard College (a liberal arts college in North Carolina). Each semester it seeks applications from college and university students from the United States to live, travel and experience the natural world together. Based in a lodge set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, the Institute aims to enliven the study of the Humanities both through focused interdisciplinary classwork, and through organized group outdoor activities.
Off Campus Life
The Institute encourages interdisciplinary thought and experimentation by focusing each session on a particular issue, idea or theme. Adding this feature, makes this study abroad australia program very unique. This theme serves as the main topic of discussion and area of research for residents at the Institute. The Castle Rock Institute is dedicated to investigating links between academic work in the Humanities and the practical dimensions of human life in the natural and social world.
All CRI students enroll in 4 courses taught at Castle Rock by Institute Senior Professors. Each course meets regularly throughout the semester and awards 4 hours of college credit. Students also spend several full and half days per week participating in small group activities like rock climbing, backpacking, and paddling.
Humanities courses and comparison
Different from the historical approach of most college Humanities programs, the curriculum at the Castle Rock Institute is organized thematically. Instead of sweeping through a series of "great books," all four of the courses offered during each semester at the Institute address a single issue, idea or theme drawn from the Humanities.
As a complement to its academic mission, the Castle Rock Institute organizes for its residents a variety of adventure activities. Focusing on meaningful expressions of this relationship, challenges students to find a balance between real life and their studies. CRI investigates how to include the environment in our study of the Humanities.
The CRI expedition is particularly exciting because it takes students into very remote parts of the continent, areas where tourists rarely go. There is no other opportunity for college students quite like it.
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