Program Overview

This 5 day yogic river immersion takes place in a spectacular southwest canyon adjacent to Monument Valley in Utah. This program brings together the outdoor skills inherent to a multi-day river trip with a focus of connecting to Place through yogic practices. Participants will have numerous opportunities to practice yoga asana, breathing and meditation while flowing through the San Juan river鈥檚 upper corridor. Participants will share in the daily work required to paddle down stream and live harmoniously in the river environment. Each day will be a blend of landscape exploration and personal exploration through a variety of yoga practices in this natural outdoor setting. Discussions and reflections around yogic philosophy and principles will allow participants to dive deeper into their understanding of yoga and consider what aspects are most relevant and meaningful to them.

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Schedule

Sept 2: Drive to Sand Island. Dinner, evening yoga practice + camp setup

Sept 3: River safety + cultural introductions + petroglyph panel stop + evening yoga + camp

Sept 4: Layover for am + pm yoga practices, side hike option, and sense of place overview, art + reflection

Sept 5: Sidehike explorations and place-based yoga practices and discussions

Sept 6: Silent float, contemplative practice. Take out + drive

Why this program?

This immersive workshop introduces students to mono-printing as an expressive foundation for relief and mixed-media printmaking. Through hands-on demonstrations, guided studio practice, and group critiques, students will explore both traditional and experimental approaches to mono-printing, including additive and subtractive inking, layering, stenciling, and ghost printing.

Emphasis is placed on creative risk-taking, sustainable studio practices, material exploration, and personal visual language development. Students will leave with a cohesive body of prints, a working sketchbook, and practical skills applicable to future printmaking and mixed-media work.

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What will this program look like?

DAY 1 鈥� Foundations + Controlled Exploration

• Welcome Introductions, Images + Demo
• Exercise 1: Direct Mark-Making
• Exercise 2: Additive + Subtractive Layers
• Structured Challenge: Limited Palette Composition
• Registration Intro (Simple Method)
• Texture & Transparency
• Independent Studio Work
• Group Critique + Clean Up

DAY 2 鈥� Advanced Layering + Series Development

• Review + Advanced Demo
• Project 1: 3-Layer Registered Print
• Ghost Print & Variation Series
• Ink Modification + Experimental Techniques
• Final Project: Thematic Print – Solo work
• Editioning Practice, Critique and Reflection

Why this program?

The Foundations in Community Journalism microcredential invites participants into the practice of journalism as a tool for collective power, resilience, and accountability. Through four interconnected, experiential workshops, students will gain both a grounding in the values of community journalism and practical skills they can immediately apply. Together, we will explore what makes community journalism distinct from legacy models and how it overlaps with community organizing. Students will learn why authentic, trust-based relationships are central to ethical reporting, and they will practice strategies for showing up within communities with transparency, humility, and care. Participants will sharpen their ability to ask strong, open-ended questions鈥攃ultivating curiosity, cultural awareness, and active listening as cornerstones of ethical storytelling. Finally, students will step behind the scenes of the full journalistic process, moving from idea to impact while reflecting on the rights and responsibilities of both journalists and news consumers. By the end of this program, students will leave with a holistic understanding of community journalism: its principles, practices, and potential to create meaningful stories that are accurate, ethical, and rooted in community trust.

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What will this program look like?

To successfully complete the pathway and earn the Foundations in Community Journalism badge, participants must:

• Engage with all four modules by completing required readings, videos, and non-lecture learning resources.
  
• Submit one artifact per module (e.g., a short written response, audio/video reflection, or activity worksheet) demonstrating engagement with key concepts:
  • Module 1: Reflection on how community journalism differs from legacy journalism.
  • Module 2: Example of a relationship-building strategy or community map.
  • Module 3: A set of open-ended, intentional interview questions.
  • Module 4: A brief outline of a story idea following the journalistic process.
    
• Participate in at least two cohort-based discussions (online discussion prompts, peer feedback, or synchronous conversations).
  
• Complete a final capstone reflection (2鈥�3 pages or a short multimedia submission) synthesizing learning across all modules. The capstone must demonstrate:
  • Understanding of the historical roots and purposes of community journalism.
  • Application of relationship-building and ethical accountability strategies.
  • Ability to craft effective, curiosity-driven questions.
  • Familiarity with the journalistic process from idea to public engagement.
    
    

Why this program?

In a dance improvisation, we are all equal. Whether we choose to stand still or to leap, our decision will shape the form of the dance. Each moment requires us to sense the movement feeling, to perceive how it is developing and then to choose how to respond, in movement in that moment. When we join with others to make something new, we create a microcosm of human relationship. When should we lead? When should we follow? When is it time to join? When do we resist? How do we initiate change? How do we include everyone while respecting our differences? This microcredential course addresses the challenges of establishing a democratic community and uses creative dance improvisation as a metaphor for the process and principles required in that task.

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What will this program look like?

Each studio session will introduce creative dance material. After day one, students will be invited to suggest various issues and challenges to democracy and then address those challenges through movement improvisations. The Course will culminate with a sharing of dance, readings, and other expressions by the students.

Participants will develop and refine their own creative movement resources. These resources include, but are not limited to:

The dance material is presented as a series of creative problems that individuals and groups will solve with improvised movement drawn from the everyday language of movement expression. It is based on the ideas and principles developed by Barbara Mettler (1907-2002), an American dance pioneer, who believed that everyone could (and should) dance. She frequently said that freedom is the basis of her approach, but that our humanity requires relationships. She taught that the individual and group were dependent on each other in order to realize their full creative potential. Mettler became known for her work with large groups improvising together. Today her work is referred to as Mettler-based dance.