澳门新葡京官网 celebrates 50 years of E-Term

Unique January program allows students to explore the world, gain experience

In 1968, Birmingham-南部 College introduced a new “curriculum for tomorrow,” and with it a new schedule replacing a quarter system with a fall and spring semester plus a January interim term.

When the new calendar was introduced, the goal was to “move the student and the teacher out of the classroom and into the laboratory, 图书馆, 工作室, 教师研究, 研讨室, public stage and…off the campus itself,学术副主席. Cecil Abernethy ’30 said at the time.

在其50年的历史中, the interim term – now called 探索术语 or “E-Term” – is a beloved part of each academic year, creating memories that last a lifetime and providing experiences that can change the course of a student’s life.

That’s the case for Dustin Massey ’12, whose E-Term class helped lead him to the career he has today. He ended up taking a photojournalism class his first year because he didn’t get into his first two options. The business major – who worked at Wells Fargo and UAB – now runs his own photography company.

“That experience helped me realize I had always been creative but never expressed that in high school. It showed me the fun of telling a story through a frame. I ended up getting a minor in photography,” Massey said. “Now my career is about capturing a story with one click of a button, which is really what Birmingham-南部 College allowed me to do.”

Today, there are a wide range of E-Term options. Some students job shadow or conduct internships, or conduct in-depth research or creative projects in 工作室 art, 音乐, 和戏剧.

Others take courses on campus (called “projects”) that dig deep into a topic or find a new way to look at a subject; the E-Term’s flexible schedule allows more time for discussion, 看电影, and activities like trips to local museums. On-campus projects this E-Term include “搜索ing for Novel Antibiotics in Our Own Backyards,” “The Fringe Benefits of Failure,” “The Art of Stand-Up Comedy,” and “Digital Detox: Mindfulness Meditation in the Modern World.” (See a full list of E-Term projects 在2018年电子学期公报中.)

One of the highlights of E-Term is faculty- and 工作人员-led trips across the world. 今年, students will head to the Galapagos Islands to study ecology and conservation, to the Czech Republic to learn about agribusiness, to Uganda to teach in a village school, to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah to look at the market for independent films, to Cuba to examine the politics and culture, 和更多的.

Mersedes Engle, a senior from Corvallis, Ore., spent her January 2017 E-Term traveling to 爱尔兰 on the project “Black, 绿色, and Between: Human Rights Study in Alabama and 爱尔兰,由博士领导. Sandra Sprayberry, Robert E. Luckie小. Professor of English, and Erica Brown, director of the Office of 多元文化事务. Along with several other students, Engle presented research and attended panels at the fourth annual Transatlantic Connections conference in Bundoran, 爱尔兰.

“Having the opportunity not only to travel abroad but to present research in an international setting was amazing,恩格尔说。. So was getting to spend time with faculty, 工作人员, and a small group of students in a non-academic environment, 她补充说.

For students concerned about paying for travel during E-Term, there are several scholarship options available. Engle received funding toward her trip from the Dr. 伊芙琳威利旅游基金, established in memory of Wiley, a 1938 澳门新葡京官网 graduate and longtime history professor who passed away in 2005. Wiley helped shape the January term as an integral part of the 澳门新葡京官网 undergraduate experience.

A number of other scholarships provide assistance for students seeking an off-campus E-Term experience, 包括罗伯特·D. Dortch Memorial Scholarship for Interim Studies. Dortch worked in the 入学 Office for 34 years, and took an interest in helping students who wanted to study abroad after graduation, assisting dozens of students with their applications for international travel scholarships.

To honor the silver anniversary of 澳门新葡京官网 president Dr. Neal大褂, students created a scholarship for peers participating in service-learning projects during E-Term. The Koinonia Scholarship provides financial support to a student or group of students whose independently-contracted E-Term project concentrates on service issues in the global community; this January, Koinonia recipient and junior Tatiana Neuman will be working with sloths at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Costa Rica.

To learn more about E-Term, take a look at the 2018电子学期快报, or follow the hashtag #澳门新葡京官网Eterm throughout the month of January.