Each spring students participate in a one-week non-traditional program called Interterm. Participation is required to graduate, but not included as part of academic credit.
Frosh through juniors select from a wide range of learning experiences including the arts, recreation, cultural studies, and voluntary community services. Seniors take part in Senior Trip.
In the 2008-09 school year, Interterm/senior trip will be April 27 to May 1.
See Spring 2008 photos and student reflections on the Underground Railroad.
See Spring 2007 photos and story on Appalachia group.
See Spring 2006 photos.
See Spring 2005 photos.
See photos of other recent Interterms.
Click on the links below to jump to course photos.
Students critically examined the basic philosophies and approaches to faith that are present in film. Students identified key reflective questions, viewed 6-8 movies, and filmed a scene from one of the movies. After each movie, students wrote an evaluation and discussed key themes over a meal or dessert.
Students learned the art of stained glass construction, creation, and maintenance. Building small projects and a major project, including clocks, wall hangings, ornaments, windows, or a jewelry box.
Stained Glass: Display individual projects and their group project of the school name and logo.
Students served with LaCasa of Goshen, which provide safe, attractive and affordable housing for Elkhart and Goshen residents.
With the help of guest chefs, students prepared foods from three countries: Kenya, Egypt, and Laos. The chefs also shared with students about customs and hospitality related to food and guests. They also explored Italian food at Il Forno restaurant and made foods on their own from India and South America.
Students worked with inner city kids in Gary, Ind., at Urban Faith Works, an after school and summer program aimed at improving their academic and social skills and their understanding of scripture and God's love. Bethany students helped in tutoring and building relationships, as well as helping with small work projects at their facilities.
Students stayed in the beautiful environment of Amigo Centre and participated in activities such as an overnight camping trip, hiking, canoeing, high ropes course, and other camp-type activities. They also gave one day of their time and talents in service back to Amigo.
Students explord the African experience of slavery in the United States and the quest for freedom through the Underground Railroad. Students spent the first three days watching Roots (the miniseries which dramatizes author Alex Haley's family line from his ancestor Kunta Kinte's enslavement to his descendents' liberation), researching the Underground Railroad, preparing a readers' theater, and learning about local underground railroad activity in Elkhart and LaGrange counties. On the fourth day students visited the national Undergound Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati and stayed overnight there. On Friday the group visited two underground railroad historic sites in nearby Ripley, Ohio, and the home of the president of the Underground Railroad (Levi Coffin) in Fountain City, Ind. In the evening the group participated in an intense underground railroad simulation at Connor Prairie that also helped students think about modern day slavery and other forms of injustice in our society. Read student reflections.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center: Group poses inside an actual slave pen. Below left students act out a readers theater vignette and below right students listen to a Quaker talk about helping freedom seekers at a safe house on the underground railroad simulation.
Students attended major league baseball games in Cincinnati, Chicago, and Cleveland.
Students took a boat trip three miles offshore of North Carolina to the islands of Cape Lookout National Seashore, where they enjoyed 56 miles of remote beaches, the Atlantic Ocean, incredible shells, and wildlife (wild horses). The islands are undeveloped and wild: there are no paved roads, stores, bathhouses, or bridges connected to the mainland. They camped on the beach in tents in the primitive style, hiked, learned to shell, and be amazed by the ocean.
Students explored an old-growth forest and hiked to a waterfall tucked in the hills of Appalachia. They traced the origins of their daily electricity consumption as they toured a strip mine and learned about mountaintop removal practices, which are quickly obliterating the life of the region. They visited remote communities that have been flooded and contaminated due to the extraction of coal and listened to their stories and dreams to preserve their land and culture. They enjoy an evening of live music, rooted in the history of Appalachia. They also spent a day and a half giving back to the Whitesburg community by cleaning up a river and doing a building project. Leaders from Mennonite Central Committee will guided them through the week's activities and daily discussions. They slept in tents at a campground on top of Pine Mountain and spent evenings boating, hiking, and participating in group games.
Students traveled to Philadelphia for meaningful service and a taste of the city's historic and cultural life. They stayed at Crossroads Community Center, an inner-city community center in the low-income North Philly neighborhood, where they served in hands-on projects and worked with kids. They also explored the culinary delights of Philadelphia: dinner in Chinatown, Southern food accompanied by live blues at "Warmdaddy's" restaurant, and an authentic greasy Philly cheesesteak. They saw some of Philadelphia's history via horse-drawn carriage, a comedy at Temple University, and re-enacted Rocky Balboa's famous run up the art museum steps.
Photos from 2007 Interterm and Senior Trip:
Appalachia: Students working on home service project. 
Automechanics: Group with dismantled car. 
Exploring Our National Pastime: At Pittsburgh.
Gidddy Up: Riding Trail in mountains of Tennessee.
Alpine Climbing |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Students learned to rappel and snowshoe in the mountains of Colorado.. |
|
Auto Mechanics |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Students dismantled three cars, learned how to cook on an engine, visited a car museum in Auburn, put together a model car, and learned what to look for when buying a car and how to take care of a car. |
|
Exploring the National Pastime |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Students attended major league baseball games in St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Cleveland, to explore and appreciate America's national past time. |
|
TOP
|
|
Canoe Camping |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students canoed the Green River in central Kentucky and camped next to the river in primitive camp sites. |
|
Chicago: Arts, Culture, and Service |
|
Students explored Chicago, and maybe ethnic districts, watched a couple shows, ate in ethnic restaurants, worked in a daycare center and homeless shelter. |
Dig This! Archaeology in Viriginia |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
Students sent two days at Ferry Farm, the boyhood home of George Washington, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, working with archaeologists on an actual dig and an archictectural archaeology tour of Kenmore Plantation, home of Washington's sister. Students also visited Washington, D.C. and Pope's Creek, site of Washington's birthplace. Students then visited the original Jamestown Fort built in 1607, original glassworks of 1608, and living history sites of the glassworks, Jamestown fort and Powhatan village, and Colonial Williamsburg. Students toured the homes of U.S. Presidents Jefferson, Monroe, and Madison. |
|
Film, Philosophy, and Food |
|
| Students critically examined the basic philosophies that are present in film as they watched 2-3 films each day from different time periods and styles. | |
TOP
Giddy-Up |
|
|
Students rode some 75 miles through the Big South Fork Back County, the largest "True Wilderness" area east of the Mississippi River. |
|
TOP
MDS Service Trip to Louisiana |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
Students worked with Mennonite Disaster Service helping repair homes in Louisiana that were damaged from the 2005 Hurricane Rita. |
|
TOP
Naturalism |
|
|
|
|
|
| Students hiked and camped along the River to Rivertrail in southern Illinois. In addition to hiking and camping, activities included sketching and photography, using field guides, scripture reading, and personal writing and reflection. | |
| Bradford Woods | |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Canoe Camping |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Students canoed about fifty miles on south central Kentucky's Greene River by day and camped next to the river in primitive campsites by night.. |
|
Chicago Art and Culture |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
TOP
|
|
Baseball: Exploring the National Pasttime |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
Film, Philosphy, and Food |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
International Cuisinse |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
TOP
TOP
TOP
TOP
Appalachia Habitat for Humanity | |
  |
|
Bradford Woods
| |
| Students were involved in various activities such as caving, canoeing, service projects, leadership workshops, journaling, backpacking, challenge course activities, high elements, and climbing.
|
|
TOP | |
Canoe Camping |
| The group canoed about fifty miles on the Greene River in Kentucky by day and camped next to the river in primitive camp sites by night. (Photos not available). |
Chicago Art and Culture | |
The group explored the artistic and cultural life of Chicago through drama, music, food, visual art, architecture, and more.
|  |
 |  |
Dig This! Archaeology in Virginia | |
   |  |
| The group spent two days at Ferry Farm, the boyhood home of George Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., working with archaeologists on an actual dig. In addition to this hands-on introduction to archaeology, they toured the archaeological site of the original Jamestown Fort built in 1607. They also visited reconstructed living history sites at Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg: boarding replicas of the ships that brought people to the first permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown, visiting with people portraying Native Americans and colonists, and participating in demonstrations of colonial life. | |
Film, Philosophy, and Food |
| Students viewed and critically examined the basic philosophies that are present in film. (photos not available). |
TOP Kentucky Backpacking Adventure | |
| The
group backpacked in Kentucky's Red River Valley. |  |
TOP LaCasa of Goshen | |
The
group worked at LaCasa of Goshen, helping rehabilitate homes and general clean
up. |  |
TOP Lifetime Sports and Recreation | |
| Students were introduced to various recreational activities that can be practiced for a lifetime: golf, swimming, volleyball, Frisbee golf, racquetball, tennis, and others. | |
 |  |
TOP Panama | |
Students explored tropical rainforests and coral reefs, observing plant and animal life unique to those ecosystems. The group snorkeled a couple of different coral reefs and a grassy flat by the San Blas Islands in the Caribbean. Students visited with two different indigenous groups in their villages.
|   |
TOP Stained Glass Creations | |
Students
created various stained glass projects including a Christmas ornament and a larger
project such as kaleidoscopes, window hangings, jewelry boxes, and glass mosaics
on patio bricks. Each student learned to cut and grind glass and prepared the
glass for soldering. | 
TOP |
