The Tripod

I'll be careful not to complain too much about the free time allotted to Trinity students during the months of December and January, and I did have a great winter break. Free from the confining meal plan and the rigorous schedule of classes, work, and the Tripod, I was able to live as I pleased for a month. I slept late, I worked, I saw friends from high school, and I applied for summer jobs.

However, during this month of relaxation, I couldn't stop thinking about all the time I was wasting. Maybe wasting is a harsh way to put it, but I certainly wasn't being productive. I was a little bit bored and I find that many students share my sentiments. Aside from being extra-excited to get back to school, I couldn't see the point of such a lengthy time off. All of my friends from high school went back to their respective colleges much earlier than I did. On average, they left about one to two weeks after New Year's. I was a little bit jealous, antsy to get my brain working again. As a Trinity student, I couldn't help but feel a little bit educationally disadvantaged, especially compared to my brother, a sophomore at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, a NESCAC school similar to ours.

A few days after New Year's, as I was settling into the bulk of my vacation, my brother's winter break ended and he was thrown into his January semester, Colby's annual Jan Plan. More formally known as "The January Program," Jan Plan is a four-week term scheduled into Colby's academic calendar where students are required to do something beneficial, something besides just hanging out.

For the month of January, students at Colby have a variety of choices. They can choose to take a class or two for credit, take on an internship, learn a new skill, or do some research. What's nice is that students are able to make Jan Plan as rigorous or as relaxing as they want.

According to their Web site, in 1961 Colby College was the first college in the country to add a Jan Plan to their academic calendar, and I think it is a fantastic idea. A few days after New Year's, and with sufficient vacation time under his belt (Colby break started when ours did around December 17th), my brother left for Ecuador with a group from Colby to fulfill his language requirement. Instead of taking a second semester of Spanish, he was able to live with a family and attend Spanish classes in Quito, not to mention travel on the weekends.

Colby offers a great range of Jan Plan activities, allowing each student to shape the month to their best advantage or desires: This year at Colby, on-campus Jan Plan courses included Introduction to Financial Decision Making, Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, and Ethics of Stem Cells. Needless to say, these are credit-bearing courses and may allot some ease for future semesters.

If you want to explore something new, you don't have to commit to an entire semester's worth of work, simply one month of relatively intense exploration. Also, as the semester is only one month long, the College is able to hire specialized instructors and guests that enhance the student's experience.

Jan Plan also provides an easy opportunity for students to travel. Colby offers classes, also for credit, around the world (with financial assistance available). For example, they have a Film Studies class that takes a trip to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, a Chinese Economics class on-site in China, and a Biology class in Costa Rica. For a less academically oriented January, students can take non-credit classes, like Fresco Painting, Blacksmithing, or The Mechanics of Freelance Writing, all at the College.

During his freshman year, my brother went back to school early to take a non-credit course where he became a certified Emergency Medical Technician and Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician, (an EMT and WEMT). He was able to benefit from this Jan Plan training during the summer as a fully trained EMT driving and working on an ambulance. The Wilderness EMT training will make him more qualified to lead cycling trips this upcoming summer. All this, and he is not even studying to become a doctor.

I would love to sacrifice some of my break in order to learn a new skill, take an intensive course, or explore other interests. I wonder why we don't have something like this at Trinity. Williams, Middlebury, MIT, UMass-Amherst, all have their own versions of what Wikipedia calls the 4-1-4 setup, mini-semester, or winter-session. That way, instead of wasting a month (in tune with the "pay more / get less" mentality), Trinity students would be able (or actually required) to do something constructive and stimulating through their school.

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