TBT: First Year Seminars

Since it is Thursday, I wanted to do a throw back to my first year at St. Mikes when I took my first year seminar, Horses and Healing.  What is a first year seminar you ask?
Well, when you come to St. Mikes, you have this awesome requirement of taking a first year seminar course.  Topics range from yoga and philosophy to the examined life to fly fishing.  Each class, though fun and different from the others, focus on helping you transition into college writing and I feel like they really promote discussion.  I loved my class because we all sat around a huge round table and it felt like I was back at home having a family dinner.  We would read a bunch of different books and do reflections and in the end, a research paper on a subject of our choice related to the class.
And I know what you're probably thinking, "What in the world is Horses and Healing?  Do you heal horses?" (my dad likes to make this joke any time I bring up the class).  We do not heal horses, though that would be crazy awesome!  Instead, we read books about humans interactions with animals, more specifically people with autism.  The bond they share is so deep and amazing, and it carries through with all different kinds of disabilities.  Horses are very in tune with the people around them and their abilities, so therapeutic horseback riding lessons are a great way for people with different disabilities, whether it be mental or physical, to have this experience and bond with such a majestic creature.  So along with reading great books, we would go once a week to South Hero (about 30 minutes away) and volunteer at a therapeutic horseback riding farm, assisting with lessons, getting hay, and mucking.  It was an amazing experience to be able to be so engaged in class and then take what we learned about horses or how people interact with them and see it in action and be able to help this farm.

Being able to interact with the horses was one of the coolest parts!

After having such an amazing experience my first year, I signed up to be one of 5 Teachers Assistants for the class.  This meant we came to the farm class once a week and would lead our small groups on different tasks.  It was one of the highlights of my week and I'm sad that it's not continuing this semester, but I met some great people and had a blast being back on the farm!

One of our projects was a sensory trail, so we hung different wind chimes on a tree to make the sound portion of the trail

My fantastic group of gals!

The whole class!

First year seminars can be so much fun, I really enjoyed mine and it's definitely something to look forward to when you're coming to St. Mikes.  Here's a list of the other class options you can take: 

http://www.smcvt.edu/Academics/Majors-Minors-and-Curriculum/Liberal-Studies-Curriculum/First-Year-Seminar.aspx