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COVID-19 Program Updates

Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki

Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki

The Fall 2021 – Spring 2022 Application is Now Open

By in Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, Semester 65 on
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We are pleased to announce our Fall 2021- Spring 2022 application is now available for interested students. You may begin your application at any time, but all materials must be submitted no later than midnight on February 15, 2021. Start Your Application For more details about applying for a life-changing semester of learning and adventure with Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, please visit our Application Checklist page.    Read More

Important Update: Delayed Opening for Maine Coast Semester

By in Admissions, Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, Chewonki Press, Semester 65 on
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Dear Families, In recent weeks we have shared a flood of information with you about the opening of school next month. It has taken significant engagement from you through Zoom meetings, emails, information forms, and phone calls. Thank you! As a parent of two school-age children myself (grades 3 and 9), I am keenly aware of the effort it takes to keep up with plans for reopening.  We appreciate your support as we, like so many other schools across the country, navigate this unprecedented Read More

A New Scholarship for Maine’s Future Environmental Leaders

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To acknowledge the importance of Maine students and their impact towards leading Maine's environmental future, we recently launched a new scholarship: the Maine Youth Environmental Leaders Scholarship. It’s our first ever merit-based award designed to recognize high-achieving Maine sophomores who have demonstrated an appreciation for the natural world and imagine a future creating positive change in their Maine community.  Our first two inaugural scholars, Ruby Peterman from Baxter Read More

Snapshot: Stephanie Schmiege (Maine Coast Semester 34)

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Among the interesting people on campus last week for the Wilderness First Responders recertification course taught by Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA) was our own Stephanie Schmiege, a 2005 alumna of Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki. Schmiege (Semester 34) currently lives in New York City, but her work, studies, and adventuresome spirit often take her to remote places, so she wanted to refresh her medical skills. When she saw that WMA, a highly regarded training organization, would be at Read More

Solos: Alone Together

By in Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, Chewonki Neck, Semester 61 on
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Leading up to solos, I knew I had a lot of questions about what the weekend would bring out in me. Would I have a revelation? Would I come back a new person? Would I sleep at all? When applying to Maine Coast Semester, solos were one of the program features I found especially enticing. Solos at Maine Coast Semester are a chance for students to venture beyond the campus and out into the woods to spend 1-2 nights alone. Being from San Francisco, it's not very often that you have the opportunity to Read More

Sawing Off the Limb on Which It Perches

By in Uncategorized, Education, Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, Semester 61 on
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In the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Biodiversity, there is a sign bearing the words of biologist Paul Ehrlich: “IN PUSHING OTHER SPECIES TO EXTINCTION, HUMANITY IS BUSY SAWING OFF THE LIMB ON WHICH IT PERCHES.” Writer Elizabeth Kolbert references this sign in her book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Copies of the book are scattered across the tables as ten Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki students begin their Environmental Issues class. Teaching Fellow Drew Read More

From Sauerkraut to Sketch-up, Connecting to the Natural World through Craft

By in Uncategorized, Semester News, Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, Semester 61 on
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The study of human ecology, or the relationship between humans and the natural world, is an important thread that runs through all aspects of Maine Coast Semester. In last week’s human ecology seminars, students explored our relationship to technology and sustainability through the lenses of energy, farming and food systems. Looking at philosophies ranging from technological futurists to back-to-the-landers, students discussed everything from electric cars to Wendell Berry, horsepower to Read More

Finding Your Place, and Yourself, on the Penobscot River

By in Maine Coast Semester in the World, Education, Wilderness Trips, Semester News, Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, Semester 61 on
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Thinking back to when I first arrived at Chewonki, I am amazed at how much I have learned in such a short time. We’ve only been here for five weeks, but already I feel like a new person. Chewonki has taught me to truly appreciate the natural world around me. It no longer feels strange to be told to go sit in the woods and observe for an hour-- it feels normal. It’s shocking how little I knew about my surroundings before I arrived. I feel a much stronger connection to the land I live on and my Read More

Outer Limits: Students Explore their Growing Edges in Maine’s Wild Places

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In the wee hours of Tuesday morning, the 45 members of semester 61 embarked in six vans loaded with backpacks, canoes and kayaks. Their destination? The wilderness, of course! Every semester spends five days in the wild places of Maine, areas that have been largely untouched by human development. Coordinated by Johnson Whippie, Chewonki’s Outdoor Classroom Field Coordinator, the groups have been preparing for their trips for several weeks. Bear-hangs, wet exits, paddling strokes and t-rescues Read More

Photos: Maine Coast Semester Celebrates 30 Years of Place-based Learning

By in Maine Coast Semester in the World, Alumni, Semester News, Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, Chewonki Neck on
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Maine Coast Semester celebrated 60 memorable semesters of placed-based learning and friendship in August with a weekend full of faculty-led workshops, swimming and canoeing, farm chores, excellent meals, and LOTS of lively conversation and laughter. A rollicking 171 people, including alumni from 31 different semesters and former faculty going back to the semester's start in 1988, joined the 30th-anniversary festivities. About half of them stayed on campus, in cabins or in tents on the archery Read More