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ON CHOOSING MARLBORO COLLEGE
The ideals of experiential education are what attracted me to Marlboro. Institutions that put so much trust in their students are unfortunately few and far between. I spent 7 years looking for a college that sets such high standards, while also allowing academic freedom. I have seen the alternatives, the generic track toward a degree—and I really appreciate that Marlboro didn’t just hand me a list of requirements to fulfill. Marlboro expects me to think about what I actually want, and to take responsibility for earning it.
ON KRYSTAL’S PLAN OF CONCENTRATION
The majority of my Plan will focus on experiential education and place-based education, with an emphasis on local food systems and environmental awareness. Learning is not a passive activity but it is so often treated as such, with heavy emphasis on memorization and recitation of information and lacking in true understanding. Experiential education, like I have found working with Marlboro faculty, deeply connects students to what they are learning. It often has the wonderful side effect of forming intentional, lasting relationships between students and faculty.
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ON EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AT MARLBORO
The opportunities to put experiential education theories in to practice at Marlboro are endless. In the coming semesters I hope to lead a hands-on workshop exploring food-based winter wellness, an immersion camping trip with the theater professor, and a half semester course with various faculty on the ways we interact with and experience food. Additionally, I am a resident assistant to Halfway, I am attending a student-taught swing class that may lead to performing in their Plan show, and I sit on two student, staff, and faculty committees.
ON APPLYING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Last summer I had the great fortune to work for Marlboro’s pre-college summer program, which allowed me to work with faculty I might otherwise have missed and to support participants navigating a Marlboro-esque college experience. Acting as a teacher’s assistant gave me a clearer view of the many ways for students to take elements of their learning back home with them, to keep those embers burning outside the classroom.
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ON TRAVELING TO NEPAL
Last spring’s trip to Nepal was another example of experiential education in action. A small handful of students and two faculty members spent two weeks traveling and learning together. We lived and ate meals together, attended pre-dawn puja at the monastery in our back yard, and had meaningful conversations during the many daily kora walks around the stupa. Additionally, before the trip each student drafted a project proposal, which we researched first-hand through exploration and interviews—I focused on the history and production of Newar pottery.
ON LIFE AFTER MARLBORO
Ideally, all this builds up to a solid foundation toward pursuing a Masters of Arts in Teaching, Ecological Education and Leadership, one of Marlboro’s graduate programs in collaboration with the Expedition Education Institute. I have always loved community-based learning and teaching, and am thrilled to have found a place where I can learn to do more than organize and teach through trial-by-fire. I truly believe in the power of creating and nurturing within students a compelling desire to know, which propels them forward on their own lifelong learning journey.