Grand Canyon Semester (gcs) is an experiential and multidisciplinary college credit program made possible by a unique partnership between Northern Arizona University and Grand Canyon National Park. Students typically take three required courses in park management, geology and independent study, and as many as four electives in subjects such as archeology, southwest history, political science, wilderness studies and even art and aesthetics, all focused on the Grand Canyon and its setting amongst the greater Colorado Plateau. We attempt to integrate course curriculum and demonstrate the interrelationships between science, policy, and nature; with an eye toward the challenges facing a place that has so many different meanings to so many different people.
The program, founded by geologist Chuck Barnes, is in its seventh Fall semester, but made its first appearance for a single semester in 1974. Students in the program live together, work together and travel together, experiencing the Canyon as a community. Courses have a strong field component. This year’s highlights include trips to the North Rim, Toroweap, Pipe Spring National Monument, Lees Ferry, the Hopi Mesas and Wupatki. Students hike to Keet Seel, up Mount Humphreys and backpack the Escalante Route, all the while inundated with geology, geography, history, archeology, botany and anything else we could think of. They are challenged to balance rigorous academic coursework with many days away from their campus home. We encourage them to immerse themselves in the people and places that make the Grand Canyon what it is.

Few people have spent as much time immersed in the Canyon physically, intellectually and even emotionally as the people who comprise gcrg. Over the last seven semesters many past and present river guides such as Michael Collier, Larry Stevens, Richard Quartaroli and others have delivered presentations to students, headed up field trips, assisted with independent studies and inspired students to get to know and become part of this landscape. The program is eternally grateful for the tremendous support and encouragement the Grand Canyon community offers. If not for their gifts of time and energy, and their willingness to share, this program would undoubtedly fall short of its goal of attaching people to landscape.
Thanks to the efforts of Grand Canyon National Park employees such as Jacob Fillion and Tom Pittenger five of the past seven semesters gcs has been able to offer students the extraordinary experience of going down the Colorado River through Grand Canyon. Each trip, like each semester, has been different but all have had an emphasis on education and a strong service and research component. This year’s remarkable October trip offered several unique and unforgettable events.
One of the objectives of the gcs river trip is always to make the trip as participatory and integrated as possible. We figure it is school after all and students ought to be learning as much as they can. To help make students the experts of their own semester and keep the rest of us quiet some of the time, the students delivered presentations at various points of interest along the way. We were graced with heaps of knowledge at Stanton’s Cave, Vacey’s Paradise, and the Hopi Salt Mines, followed by great stories of boat flips in Lava and debris flows at Crystal. Each night we divided into revolving groups to cover all of the various camp duties such as cooking, clean-up, water, groover, and fire. Field plant identification occurred throughout the day and geology became the focus of our morning sessions. All of this accumulated knowledge was put to use during student day when below Lava, the students ran the entire day, from rigging and operating boats (under the close supervision of territorial boatman of course), to making meals and organizing activities.
Grand Canyon Semester hopes to become a more permanent fixture on the Colorado Plateau. We also hope to have continued and increased involvement from the community in which the Semester takes place. However, we cannot accomplish any of this without students. If you know of someone who would be a good fit for this experience please tell them about it. For information they can check out the website at www.grandcanyonsemester.nau.edu or e-mail us at grandcanyonsemester@nau.edu.

Mathieu Brown and Kirstin Heins