21st Century Outcomes
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The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration is the first academic space at Blair that is open, where you can literally walk into the midst of intellectual discourse. It emphasizes what we've always said about learning at Blair: that it extends beyond the walls of the classroom. The creation of classrooms without walls is a visual representation of what is happening intellectually.
Nathan Molteni, Dean of Academics
GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT
Blair encourages students to go out into the world and interact with people across the United States and around the globe. As they immerse themselves in new cultures and experience how others live, students gain cultural awareness and emotional intelligence, becoming true global citizens who are ready to take on the challenges of our highly connected world.
Engagement takes many forms: Our student leaders partner with nonprofits and campus clubs such as Earthshine, Blue and White Key, La Conexión, Perspectives and the Healthy Relationships Committee; service efforts can take place as close to campus as the local food pantry or as far away as Costa Rica; some trips come to fruition because a faculty member is particularly interested in learning more about a given destination and invites students to take part in the excursion, while others become campus traditions because a student is particularly passionate about a cause.
Meaningful Trips
Each year, we offer a range of domestic and international travel opportunities that combine elements of cultural immersion, service, leadership and research. Academic work takes on real-world meaning when, for example, a history class helps a student understand the context of a historical site or an art class illuminates the importance of a cultural phenomenon or a language class helps a student communicate with a new friend. During and after each trip, students and teachers gather to reflect on their shared experience, its meaning in their lives and its impact on their academic coursework.
Five Continents & 14 U.S. States
In recent years, Blair students have traveled to five continents and 14 U.S. states on trips that have been initiated and planned by both students and faculty who are excited to share their interests, passions and curiosity about the world around them. Closer to campus, our students participate in Model United Nations events, visit art museums, see Broadway shows, and attend Intelligence Squared debates in New York City and Philadelphia. Students who seek a more in-depth learning experience initiate independent-study courses that provide additional insight into issues they find compelling.
Each Year, New Opportunities
Travel opportunities over winter, spring and summer breaks vary by year, and many are once-in-a-lifetime events, such as Blair’s recent musical tours of Italy and England, and cultural-immersion trips to Kenya, Cuba and Costa Rica. Although faculty chaperones always accompany travelers, a number of the School’s most popular excursions have been initiated by passionate students, such as the annual trek to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Tennessee. Click on the accordions below to view our recent international and U.S. destinations. Our news archive also delves into our more recent trips in more detail.
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
Heart of Learning
The Chiang-Elghanayan Center for Innovation and Collaboration's highly configurable spaces provide flexible, inviting learning and meeting space for clubs, study groups, conferences, guest lectures and a host of other co-curricular educational opportunities. The atrium-ceilinged Collaboration Forum, the building’s effectively sized and technology-rich centerpiece, is home to Blair’s renowned Skeptics lecture series, and experts from many fields and every corner of the globe share their knowledge with the Blair community in this exciting venue.
Technology
With computer science, engineering and robotics anchored in dedicated and well-equipped classrooms in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center, Blair’s technology curriculum now has room to expand and grow. Students and faculty working in technology take advantage of their proximity to the Chiang-Elghanyan Center's art studios, media labs and maker space to collaborate with student and faculty artists on any number of projects, and students can easily continue to work outside of class hours in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s facilities.
Fine Arts
Blair’s fine arts department holds classes in the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s ceramics studio, two fully equipped media labs and airy, light-filled drawing, painting and architecture studios. Beyond the academic class day, these facilities are available to all members of the community, making the Chiang-Elghanayan Center a place where ideas pertaining to many disciplines come to life. Students are empowered to use the Chiang-Elghanayan Center’s tools and spaces to create real-world solutions to issues and problems they encounter in any class.