Welcome!
"The Grand Canyon is the one sight every American should see."
~President Theodore Roosevelt, 1904~
Really get away for a semester - experience and study the Grand Canyon! The Grand Canyon Semester at Northern Arizona University offers an unforgettable learning experience in the high mountains of northern Arizona and the deep canyon country of the Colorado Plateau. Students with all kinds of interests come from across the United Stats and around the world, joining research faculty in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities to examine the challenges facing people in this ancient and modern environment. On back country field trips, in traditional classroom settings, in art galleries and around campfires, floating down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon gorges, we confront the issues of then and now: How do population growth, resource scarcity, and changing values determine our relationship to this fragile and stunning landscape? How can we both protect a World Heritage Site of of the "crown jewels" of America's National Park system, and still make it available to nearly five million visitors a year? What are the rights of the native peoples who's ancestors lived in this canyon country for thousands of years? And what are our responsibilities to this unique region of the earth?
The Grand Canyon Semester is an integrated learning experience in the humanities and sciences through which each student comes to understand the challenges we will have to grapple with the 21st century, regardless of where we live. GCS students enroll for the fall semester at Northern Arizona University (program is fall only), which serves as their home academic base for the semester. NAU is in Flagstaff, a mountain community of 57,000 people. At 7,000 feet in elevation, Flagstaff is located at the feet of the San Francisco Peaks and in the middle of the largest ponderosa pine forest in North America, about eighty miles south of the Grand Canyon. The University co-sponsors the program with the National Park Service at Grand Canyon National Park, and partners with the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon Association. Thought the semester GCS students work closely with experts from these and other institutions (U.S. Geological Survey, among others), as well as with NAU faculty and staff. Participants hike in and around the Grand Canyon, in addition to studying at NPS facilities on the South Rim of the Canyon.
Each student will complete 16 credit hours of course work, including a required independent research course. Our courses are taught cooperatively, with faculty widely involved in academia and social activities, and classes average about 20 students. In additions, professionals from the National Park Service and our other partners serve as visiting lecturers. We host dozens of presentations by guest artists, photographers, writers, political activists, native leaders, and scholars. The GCS has many opportunities for field study, sometimes in remote areas at high elevations. Applicants should be in good health and comfortable hiking in remote locations.
"A dazzling semester. .. this is what education ought to be."
~Former GCS student, 1999~
"The canyon is by far the most amazing feature on this great planet, geologically, ecologically, and spiritually. .. For someone like myself this is the ultimate learning experience."
~GCS student, 2002~
