Cumbersome Beauty

Three weeks are irrelevant. The time I spent on orientation took on a context greater than the month of September. It felt oddly like a lifetime, as if, during the time, I grew from infant to old man, and at the end flew up toward the sun. Suddenly, there was pavement. Traffic mumbled down the road. I was back, and it was difficult suddenly to comprehend what I had just done. Now, a week after returning to greater humanity, I feel prepared to explain my experience of Prescott College Wilderness Orientation.

We began in Prescott. All the orientation students sat in a big circle and were told to close their eyes. An inspiring speech was given as, unbeknownst to us, all of the orientation instructors and course directors changed into, in some cases horrifically undersized, cutoff denim shorts. Using flame shaped pieces of paper with our names and a cryptic code (CB2 in my case), we found our “destinies,” our orientation groups. These people we’d be learning the intimate secrets and gastric patterns of for the next twenty-one days.

The following day, we piled into Prescott College vans, one for each group, and were shuttled up a mountain on a very bumpy road. We built a trail all together in the morning, ate lunch in our groups afterward, and were off to a YMCA summer camp not too far from Prescott. Here, at Chauncey Ranch, we spent two nights. This is where we started to get to know each other. Our first hike was here. We had our first written reflection here and coordinated our own group rules. We sorted the food we’d purchased together back in Prescott and assigned group gear to each other. Our packs, at this point, were frightfully cumbersome.

On a fateful morning we loaded our packs into the bed of a pickup and climbed the stairs of the charter bus that was to take us to our temporary home in the wilderness. Except it was the wrong bus. “Stump’s group? You’re on the other bus.” This event really set the tone for our journey: hilarious and less-than-tragic missteps. Despite the miles of extra hiking and food made inedible with Dr. Bronner’s, the comic relief was like a friendly poltergeist that never left us.

Our first night we slept on a gorgeous red sandstone boulder at the edge of West Clear Creek, in the canyon so named. We jumped off into the deep, clear water and were like celebrating nymphs. Everyone smiled. It was good. On this first night, I had a long talk with the exquisitely big sister-like Iris Cushing, Shane Stump’s counterpart facilitating our journey. I was a bit overwhelmed and didn’t think I could sleep outside; I’d never slept in anything less substantial than a tent in my life. With a gentle voice and reassuring hand on my back, I was absolved of my fears and spent the night staring up into the brilliant star-filled sky the likes of which I rarely, if ever, had seen before.

The skies above our journey were equal in proportion to the rocks, water, and forest we hiked through. The skies were at times full of radiant, intense sunlight, crystal blue skies without a single cloud. They were malevolent grey curtains offering downpours and lightening prisons. They were intense sunrise and sunset, full of colors like autumn leaves and sherbet. They were the open universe, with shooting stars, constellations, and the great Milky Way looming at the furthest reaches of human vision.

Along our journey, we ate sweet sour canyon grapes. We climbed down waterfalls with ropes around waist. We drank water from puddles. We ate the greatest honeydew ever beset mankind. Sometimes we walked down national forest roads while the cows stared at us and followed, intrigued. Other times I wished I had a machete to make my way through such thick vegetation I had never imagined grew in the dry Southwest. We negotiated around cacti. We climbed 1600 feet in one day. Through much difficulty, and much doubt, we made it to our destination. However, when you’re hiking in a large horseshoe shaped path, not really traveling, just backpacking, there really is no destination. I think orientation, by its very circuitousness, exemplifies well the ethos of Prescott College: education is a journey.

-Estin Vogel, 09.29.2011

So amazing...here I am.

This is my last year at Prescott College. As such, I am not sure what to feel. Over the past four years I have experienced more than I ever thought I would, and a list of everything that has happened would be impossible to construct. Although, here are some amazing opportunities:

• Orientation was mesmerizing
• Met my best friends, whom I have lived with since school began
• Journalist, copy-editor, and designer for student newspaper
• Volunteered at a school for homeless children in Phoenix
• Rafted, hiked, and horse-packed widely throughout the Grand Canyon
• Rock climbed extensively throughout Joshua Tree National Park and the Prescott area
• Attended a rally to support Arizona teachers in Phoenix
• Team member on an academically inclined 800 mile horse-packing expedition down the Arizona Trail from Utah to Mexico focusing on relational leadership, the psychology of sustainability, and integrative education. Moreover, this was the first expedition of its kind on the Arizona Trail.
• Became incredibly involved in the mountain biking world
• Completed a 200 hour yoga teacher training during winter block. We did yoga for 8-10 hours a day during the four week class in my favorite classroom on campus.
• Took a class called Rock Climbing and Geology
• Became the events coordinator for the Prescott College Peace and Justice Center. This meant organizing, writing grants, and introducing speakers and musicians from all over the world.
• Certified as a Peer Educator through the Bacchus Network during a Prescott College class. This is a nationally recognized certification in the human development industry.
• Took an improvisational dance class that changed my whole outlook on the way I move.
• Teachers assistant for a class called Holistic Health and Wellness. This was focused upon yoga, massage, physiological structures, integrative medicine, and a group sauna at the end.
• Had an education class where we traveled by van throughout Arizona and Colorado to teach in some of the most effective K-12 schools in the country. During this time, we wrote lesson plans while on the road, worked with great teachers, and after some time took on the teacher’s role.
• Completed my last year, after five, as a rock climbing guide and instructor trainer.
• Active member in the Strategic Planning Committee for the future of Prescott College; specifically in the area of Student Success and Support
• Changed my competence title to Liberatory Education
• Traveled solo throughout most of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
• Worked at an orphanage in eastern Guatemala. A twenty minute boat ride to the nearest town down the Sweet River in the middle of dense jungle.
• Wayne Regina’s Models of Leadership class
• Jordana Dezeeuw Spencer’s Feminism and Social Justice class
• Sitting here right now, and being able to reflect upon these amazing experiences.  

In effect, I am not writing all of this to be self-righteous. Essentially, I am grateful for the education I have received. Prescott College is like no other school in the country. I can say this because I have looked. During my college search I explored everywhere from Princeton to Marlboro, Reed to Naropa, and many others in between. This is not to say these are bad schools, I just took a more reflective process than merely picking a school because of how many swimming pools there were. As such, I looked deeply into the who, how, and why of myself. It just came to be that Prescott College made more sense then anything else, which still holds true even after going into $40,000 of student loan debt.

What I am moving toward is that Prescott College has been one of most mesmerizing and awesome experiences of my life; using awesome in terms of being in complete awe of my classmates, professors, and available opportunities. I could not imagine going to any other school in the world. I have learned that I am braver than I believed, stronger than I seemed, and smarter than I thought I could be.

Essentially, Prescott College does not have a lot of stuff. We don’t have several swimming pools, a permanent croquet field, or big fraternities and sororities. We don’t need these things. Prescott College is community. Prescott College is exploring our deepest potentials. Prescott College asks us who we are, along with what we know. Schools come in all different shapes and sizes, some are for-profit and others are for life long learners.

When choosing a school, look at the journey that may present itself. For it will not matter what the name was, but what was learned. It will not matter how many students attended the school, but who we met along the way. We are all looking for a sense of belonging; a place where we are understood. For me, Prescott College has been, and continues to be, that place.
Enjoy the journey…

 -Jordan Kivitz, 09.2011