As programs abroad immerse participants in another culture, the Adirondack Semester immerses students in wild nature. All courses in this program are concerned with the environment and nature. The campus is a yurt village set among ancient trees that hug the shore of an Adirondack lake where glaciers melted 12,000 years ago. Field trips and daily life reinforce academic study, permitting students to deepen their learning and test it against their own experience. Participants form a tight, supportive community, where working, learning, and playing together are as natural as the surroundings.
The program provides four and one half units (about 16 semester hours) of university course credit. The semester runs from mid-August to mid-December, with a short break near mid-semester and a week long break for Thanksgiving.