[Alumni-chat] work/study

[Pam Olsen]

dl Bahr said:

"I agree that the experiential aspect of Antioch needs to be better honed
and integrated with the academics.  A focus on a junior year field project
where theory is applied is a great idea!  However, a first year six month
co-op can be transformational for an eighteen or nineteen year old student.
My freshman year, I studied in Yellow Springs for six months and then worked
for six months in Seattle in a field I strongly wanted to explore (Clinical
Psychology--Day Treatment including interdisciplinary treatment modalities
such as art and dance therapy).  Having six months in a urban center after
six months in Yellow Springs was a great experience.  However,  when I came
back from Seattle ripe with new experience and much buzzing in my
head--there was very little integration or avenue to articulate what I had
learned on co-op.  Yes, I did a paper and got credit but it was never
integrated into my academic planning or into a structured sharing with
others of what I had learned.  If there had been an opportunity for deeper
research based on what I had experienced working in Seattle; I might have
gone for an interdisciplinary approach--there was not the structure and
academic focus to consider this.  Despite my interest in the
interdisciplinary field of Art Therapy--I instead focused on a traditional
BFA because not only were the academics watered down but so was the
professional practice of Art Therapy.  (Ironically another intern in the Day
Treatment program where I co-oped was a masters candidate at Antioch Seattle
in Art Therapy--it was her lack of insight that pushed me towards a BFA
rather than crafting an interdisciplinary degree involving arts and the
social sciences.)" 

I think there is merit to both early co-ops that really aren't yet related
to academics, for exploration, and later on, when a major has been decided,
doing some focused work in the field.  Seems there could be room for both.

I like David Apter's ideas about figuring how to make studies more
integrated...

I think it's a positive that much of what made Antioch unique is now being
done a lot of other places....we done good as a model, yes?  So it's time to
think of ways to move on to a new model, and personally, I think some of the
ideas brought up two or three months ago, about taking today's problems
(climate change and the related disasters that will undoubtedly follow,
renewable energy, population growth, green building, etc.) and build a
curriculum around them, rather than have a classic curriculum that somehow,
someday one hopes will apply to a decent job.  Practical application.
Somehow bringing traditional departments together for such.