Last January, while frost was settling onto the hills and fields of Blair’s rolling campus, Blair students found themselves soaking up the sun in distant and exotic locales. Some were in the nation’s capital for three days, meeting with professionals driving change on a national and global level. Others ventured to Seneca Falls, New York, tracing the footsteps of the Suffrage Movement leaders and diving into history. Meanwhile, 15 students explored life on the other side of the globe, getting to know the Blair-Serem School in the highlands of Africa and learning about what it takes to support the education of hundreds of children in rural Kenya.

A Time for Exploration
Whether the goal was to delve into culture, uncover history or explore career possibilities, each trip challenged students to learn firsthand. These experiences were made possible through Blair’s Intersession program, formerly known as J-term. Since its inception in 2020, Intersession has provided students ten days to delve deeply into a topic of their choosing—with a focus on immersive on- and off-campus experiences. One of the most important aspects of Intersession has been the opportunity to collaborate with those beyond Blair's campus. Outside experts—some alumni,  some experts and organizations completely apart from Blair—contribute to these key experiences. Now, with the program moving to March, Assistant Head of School for Academics Nathan Molteni sees an opportunity for expansion. “This switch to March provides greater capacity for travel and experiences outside our ‘bubble,’” Mr. Molteni says. In 2025, Intersession trips under consideration include Kenya, Puerto Rico and Cuba, in addition to the program’s signature day trips and overnight excursions to Washington, D.C., New York City and Philadelphia. 

The reason for prioritizing travel is simple: It has the ability to awaken passion in young learners like few other experiences can. Many are familiar with the famed journey of Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison, who persuaded his bandmates to join him on a trip to India in 1968. The musicians returned profoundly changed by rhythms of Indian life, leading to lifelong personal changes in the men and a period of rich artistic productivity for the band. Similarly, author and poet Maya Angelou found her worldview reshaped in her twenties by experiences in Egypt and later in Ghana. Reflecting on the universal human experiences she encountered, Angelou wrote, “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become  friends.” In both instances, the exposure to new people and new ideas that travel brought proved to be the catalyst that sparked discovery, fueled the imagination and broadened understanding. 

Ensuring Equal Access
Mr. Molteni emphasizes the importance of equitable access to Intersession’s learning opportunities for all Blair students. “If you want students to have a brief but impactful experience, it is through Intersession,” he says. “Our students are uniform in their enthusiasm for travel opportunities during Intersession, whether day tripping to New York City or spending 10 days in Kenya.” The leadership and support of every member of the Blair family is so critical to delivering on the School's curricular and co-curricular programs; certainly, this will only become increasingly important through scholarship support and named awards benefiting global travel, not only during Intersession but also for trips planned for other times of the school year.

As we prepare for next March’s Intersession, we look forward to continuing to open doors for every student to experience the transformative power of travel. Whether it is an exploration of the historic Eastern State Penitentiary for the class “Incarceration Nation” or a trip to New Haven, Connecticut, to meet with architects revitalizing old buildings for adaptive reuse in “In Praise of Older Buildings,” the destination pales in comparison to journey itself. Because in the end, as George Harrison, Maya Angelou and countless others have discovered, real learning is not just about the places we go—it’s about what we learn along the way.