Between semesters, The New School focuses on a single topic for three weeks. These three-week intensives are usually split into three groups: a local group based in Kennebunk with day trips throughout New England; a travel intensive that can take students further afield such as New Orleans, Cape Canaveral, or the American Midwest; and an international travel intensive.
Planning and preparation
Beginning early in the school year, our students work with faculty and staff about the learning experiences they’d like to undertake. Research, logistics, fundraising, and more are planned by our student body. Our faculty create areas of interdisciplinary study for students to undertake across the three weeks.
Through this concentrated session, students gain real world experience, self-awareness, a spirit of adventure and memories that stay with them for a lifetime.
Past intensives
Four students spent two weeks working on a family-run ranch in Kansas that raises buffalo and organic wheat. Before and during the trip they studied the Dustbowl, the ecology of the prairie, Native American culture and the history of the Great Plains.
In 2013 a group of five students led by teacher Steve Schaefer, an expert sailor and boat builder, spent months outfitting a 22′ sailboat and getting it ready for a sailing adventure off the coast of Connecticut. In addition to seamanship, the group studied marine biology and the history of coastal communities in southern New England.
Intensives provide wonderful opportunities for immersion in the arts. Our students have used the time to study and work with various artists, explore new mediums, visit museums and artists’ studios throughout New England and New York City, and create exhibits of their work.
In 2024, students traveled down the eastern coast of the United States, focusing on the science of space exploration and cooperation (and competition) with other nations in humanity’s first foray into space.
Back on Earth, our students have traveled to several Latin American and European countries during intensives. Many of these trips have involved community service, such as teaching English to school children, working in a shelter for battered women, or planting trees in a deforested area. History, ecology, native culture, and foreign language skills have been areas of study during these international travel intensives.
