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Summer Slowdown? Not at MBC

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By Dawn Medley 

2009-07-01

Students interact during Summer Week 2008 Spending your days composing stories on the Chesapeake Bay or touring a coal mine and exploring Appalachian handcrafts in Beckley, West Virginia might not sound like schoolwork, but adult and graduate students at Mary Baldwin College are learning plenty through activities like those and classroom study during summer courses in 2009.

Environment Based Learning (EBL) courses this summer include an introduction to Environment Based Learning, Nature Journaling Across the Curriculum (with author and illustrator Claire Walker Leslie), a storytelling course with nationally known orator Donald Davis, and Trout in the Classroom. The classes not only get students out into the natural environment in Staunton and Augusta County, but Storytelling: A Pathway to Curriculum Integration begins with three days on Smith Island surrounded by the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

Adult students of all ages participate in ADP and graduate summer courses. In early summer Adult Degree Program (ADP) students in Staunton and Hampton — at of one of MBC’s seven regional centers for adult and graduate studies — earned valuable credits toward their degrees in courses ranging from Introduction to Art Education to Historic Preservation to Multicultural Education during summer institutes.

The South Boston regional center began its fourth annual summer session in early June and continues to accept enrollments for weeklong courses through the end of July, said Wanda Overby, regional operations coordinator.

Field trips, such as this one to Jamestown, are an integral part of summer courses “Some students registered for one course and then decided they liked the format and material so much that they came back for more,” said Overby, adding that approximately 40 students are registered for summer courses at the center.

“The instructors seem to like it to,” she said about the schedule, which includes one week of Creativity abounds during ADP Summer Weekintensive classroom time and additional assignments throughout the summer to earn three credit hours.

ADP and Master of Arts in Teaching summer courses are also offered in Charlottesville, Richmond, Roanoke, and Weyers Cave. Visit http://www.mbc.edu/summer/ for more details and course descriptions.