Honors Seminar: A Taste of the Appalachian Trail
This program will not be offered in Summer 2010.
Program Location
Seminar participants will have the opportunity to experience living on and studying the Appalachian Trail in Virginia from Rockfish Gap, Virginia to Robinson Gap Road, Virginia—a total of 66 miles. Much of the Trail parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway.. Participants will be able to experience both group and solo hikes, and will be able to meet both group and individual members of its unique community. We will hike and camp on pre-designated sections. Section hikers, thru-hikers--both GAME (Georgia (GA) to Maine (ME)) and MEGA (Maine (ME) to Georgia (GA)), ridge runners, and trail angels will provide us with a deeper understanding of the rich diversity of Virginia’s Appalachian Trail—its geography, its anthropology, its history, and its future. The opportunity to study and hike sections of the Trail will offer participants new and different perspectives of the National Park and the “long, linear” community known as the Appalachian Trail.
Academic Program
The Honors Program offers students the opportunity to experience diverse elements in their community, in this case sections of our nation’s longest footpath. Participants will spend a portion of their experience talking with Trail experts to learn about issues unique to the Appalachian Trail, including trail maintenance, land acquisition, social networking, safety, record-keeping, and educational services. Seminar participants will learn about Virginia’s Appalachian Trail by living on and hiking along the trail, leaving behind their regular lives behind and experiencing full immersion into this unique  world. The Appalachian Trail seminar is offered to honors students to provide them with the opportunity to cultivate habits of critical thinking, communication, and creative expression. Through the small class taught by an experienced professor and hiker, students will develop their own line of inquiry and independent thought about the Trail and their experiences on it.
Access to this major primary source, the Appalachian Trail, will encourage students to develop an interdisciplinary perspective to hiking and studying the Trail. Students will be able to apply creative learning methodologies, including research and active learning experiences away from the classroom. The AT Seminar is designed to encourage creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and deeper intellectual inquiry.
The Appalachian Trail Seminar is designed to be flexible, and small class size will foster unique and experiential learning. An honors seminar is defined as "a small group of advanced students engaged in special study or original research." This definition will come to life as students develop into research colleagues, sharing findings from their individual research focuses during the second and third weeks.
Both academic and athletic instructional methods will include guided tours, field work, journal assignments, and participation in group meetings and activities. The seminar will stress the interdisciplinary nature of hiking the Appalachian Trail: we will examine the natural sciences it offers, such as biology, chemistry, and geography, as well as the social sciences it offers, such as anthropological, psychological, and social. We will also have the opportunity to experience and participate in one of the most unique communication systems in the world: the AT shelter register (each AT shelter—and there are hundreds in Virginia—contains a registration book. These registers record everything from prosaic trail names, destinations, and weather forecasts to poetic musings, art work, and diary-like emotional outpourings).
Each student will choose an area related to the Virginia Appalachian Trail to research independently. Their research findings will be used to create a cohesive project which will be presented during the fall semester.
Instructional methods include lectures, guided tours, field work, journal assignment and/or papers and tests/exams.
Tentative course offerings:
HON 302: A Taste of the Appalachian Trail, 3 credits
Prerequisites: Applicants must be a Track I or Track II Honors Scholar.
Accommodations
Students will camp in pre-determined shelters and campgrounds. They will prepare their own meals and make their own “nests.”
Before each hike, we will meet in the Honors Lounge in Hillcrest. We will ride together in a JMU van. A designated driver will drop up off at each hike’s beginning trail head and drive back to JMU. The van will pick us up at each hike’s ending trail head.
The sections we will be hiking are very well maintained and we will encounter frequent fellow hikers as well as rangers and ridge runners.
Before we begin hiking the program director will provide information about safety, including water purification, blister prevention, use of hiking poles, hypo- and hyperthermia, etc. We will discuss the benefits of polypro over cotton, and discuss appropriate footwear. We will practice using camp stoves. We will discuss nutrition and sugar needs. We will discuss medications students may need to take with them as well as over-the-counter pain medications. Participants will receive demonstrations on how to create a safe, cozy, water-proof campsite before the first hike.
Program Costs
For the current projected costs for this program, please click on the following link to the Fees for JMU Study Abroad Programs page.
Application
For more detailed instructions and to download the application, please click on the following link to the Applications and Forms section for JMU Short-Term Programs.
In addition to the Short-term Application, interested students must submit one faculty recommendation and respond to the following questions in a two-page essay:
“Why do you want to participate in this hiking seminar? Hiking and camping along the Appalachian Trail will present a unique set of challenges and opportunities. What challenges and opportunities do you expect to encounter? How might these challenges and opportunities advance your education—personally, as well as academically? How might they benefit you in your life beyond college?”
Students will also compose a post-seminar essay which addresses which of these challenges and opportunities they in fact encountered and their responses to these challenges and opportunities. These post-seminar essays will become part of their fall presentation.
Additional requirements: While the terrain in southern Virginia is not considered difficult by experienced hiker standards there is some altitude change and the path is sometimes rocky. Students must be able to hike between ten and fifteen miles per day while carrying a backpack. Students must be in “ready to go” shape before the hike begins. At least two experienced adult hikers will accompany student hikers at all times. In addition to the standard Statement of Intent to Participate, a consent form will be required.
For More Information
For additional information about this Honors Seminar, please contact the program directors by email:
Dr. Kate Kessler
Associate Professor
Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication,
Tel: 540-568-7943
E-mail: kesslekj@jmu.edu
Dr. Barry Falk
Honors Program Director
Tel: 540-568-5535
E-mail: falkbl@jmu.edu
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