College is thought of as an insular time in which you spend four years studying on campus in order to prepare yourself for the “real world.” But what is my life now if not real? Taking courses at Hampshire and dancing at Mount Holyoke, spending the summer in New York and coming to Iceland for a semester – these experiences not only amount to my college years but also to a substantial portion of my life.

     I am not new to the idea of experiential education. The learning philosophy here in Iceland is the epitome of what Hampshire is about – learning doesn't just take place in a classroom with a textbook. Learning happens when fourteen students and two teachers come together in an incredible community to invoke ideas and question philosophies. Education occurs when students are so motivated by a discussion that they continue the conversation even after the class has dispersed.

     What we are creating here in Iceland is the accumulation of knowledge and the challenging of ideas; after just three weeks, I have both expanded my view on global issues and made substantial developments in the ways I choose to inhabit the earth. I am able to do this because I have students and teachers to engage with, a community to serve as a living model, and all of Iceland to act as my classroom.
     -Noga