Prescott- On September 8, 2009, seven Prescott College students, two instructors, and thirteen horses and pack mules will embark on a three and a half month trek following the entire Arizona Trail, which spans the state from Utah to Mexico. Elementary schools, middle schools, and schools of expeditionary learning from Durham, N.H. to Puerto Rico will be following the learning adventure. The expedition sets out the last week of August.
The Arizona trail winds down from the Colorado Plateau of Southern Utah, descending through the heart of the Grand Canyon, around the San Francisco Peaks, across the Mogollon Rim, and through the Superstition Mountains, ending at the Sky Island Mountains in Mexico. The rugged and varied 800-mile, non-motorized route spans the length of the state.
Locally, teacher Pam Robbin’s class at Skyview School will participate, and David DenHartog, the school designer for Expeditionary Learning Schools in the Southwest, has facilitated connection to those schools, including Northpoint Expeditionary High School in Prescott.
“I’ve always wanted to have some of our middle schoolers hike the Arizona Trail in the two year seventh and eighth grade water studies investigations,” noted Robbins. The trek is introducing students to the sections of the trail that she hopes to take them on in January. Pam can be reached at 776-1730 or probbins@skyview.k12.az.us.
“We sent out an email notification to Arizona teachers and the word has spread all over the country,” said trip leader Paul Smith, Human Development faculty at Prescott College. “Twenty to thirty schools have already signed on to virtually join the expedition, and we expect many more in the coming months.” The group will be geo-tagging photos on Google Earth so students can see the actual places and people of the trek.
“We have set up as many means as possible to have dialogue with the school students and the expedition, including Skype and the blogs,” he explained. Skype is an internet based video phone service which will be tapped via the trek’s satellite link. “A major component of the trip is the ripple effect, trying to affect others,” sharing the lessons along the way with students in schools.
The expedition will use a solar powered mobile satellite web link at base camp for updating blogs, students electronic portfolios, and the website, arizonatrail2009.org. The blogs, portfolios, photos and other updates are accessible via the website. Schools and classes that would like to participate can find more information on the website.
All of the students on the trek will be completing research projects, including one Senior Project on leadership with a focus on facilitating “mindful awareness” through meditative practices. Students will be blogging about the geology and biology and human history of the landscape they’re traveling through, reflecting on working with and taking care of horses, the psychology of leadership which emerges on a trip like this – how people make decision and work together in a learning community – as well as issues related to sustainability. The group will be examining where the food that they are able to access in local communities along the route actually comes from, and the sustainability impacts of that.
Students will also study and apply all the equestrian skills necessary to skillfully and safely travel with horses in a manner that prioritizes positive relationships with their equine partners. Topics covered will include relational horsemanship, nutrition, basic veterinary and natural hoof care, local natural history and ecology, route finding, and Leave-No-Trace horse packing.
Smith is completing his Ph.D research during the trip on what intentional partnership with horses has to teach us about being more fully human. As part of his research, trekkers will be digitally recording reflections on daily lessons learned from partnering with the horses.
“The context of being the first group to attempt a horse packing expedition of the 800-mile Arizona Trail from Utah to Mexico will provide an ideal environment to pursue both theoretical as well as applied understanding of relational leadership,” said Smith. Paul will co-lead with Pam McPhee, Director of the Browne Center for Innovative Learning at the University of New Hampshire, who is using her U.N.H. sabbatical to co-lead the trip.
“The equine’s ability to mirror back human emotion and intention supports a development of self-awareness and awareness of ‘other’ that forms the foundation of effective, compassionate leadership,” Smith explained. “Through my work with Equine Assisted Learning over the past 10 years I have witnessed and experienced that profound growth, learning, and shift in awareness grow from intentional partnership with horses.”
The core philosophy of relational horsemanship is to avoid one sided master-to-servant command communication, and to instead develop a reciprocal relationship in which communication flows in both directions between animal and human. The ability to influence a horse requires directness, intention, clarity of communication, and an attention to other key factors including self awareness, body language, vocal tone, and genuine respect.
“Students on the expedition are simultaneously stewards and students of the horses with whom they will be working. Similar to their responsibility to the rest of the group, each member will have direct responsibility to monitor and support the health and vitality of the equine partner who is quite literally carrying them through the journey.
“This is more than just a historic expedition,” Smith said. “This journey will be the basis for a major academic research study on the lessons about psychology, and more specifically, the psychology of sustainability, to be learned from extended partnerships between humans and horses. What students take away from this 24-credit block of courses is a deeper understanding of themselves, and an ability to lead by communicating in an open and healthy way. We will face real challenges following ecologically responsible Leave-No-Trace practices with horses in backcountry settings. The challenge of doing this well is not at all unlike the reality of the impact our species has on the extended environment.”
The Prescott College Equine Program, Centaur Leadership Services (CLS), offers Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) and Equine Assisted Mental Health (EAMH) programs for community youth, undergraduates studying leadership, education, and human development, and graduate students pursuing a master of arts degree in Counseling Psychology with a focus in EAMH. Information on CLS can be found @ www.prescott.edu/cls.
ABOUT PRESCOTT COLLEGE
Prescott College offers a resident B.A. program at its main campus in Prescott, Arizona, as well as low residency B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in which students complete their studies in their home communities with the help of faculty mentors. All programs emphasize student-directed, experience-based learning by doing, environmental and cultural awareness, and social justice. For more information please contact Mary Lin, M.Ed., Director of Marketing and Public Relations at 928-350-4503 or pr@prescott.edu. More information is on the web at www.prescott.edu.
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