Spiritual Journey

South Padre. Daytona Beach. Cancun. These exotic beaches are popular spots for college students to go on Spring Break.

But for students in Kurt Caswell’s Backpacking the Southwest class, Spring Break destination was an ancient canyon in Utah; their mission, to search for deeper meaning within themselves.

Over the course of a semester, students researched topics of their choosing in preparation for the culmination of their studies: the trip to Grand Gulch, a canyon in Utah.

“This is the first time I’ve taught this course,” said Caswell, assistant professor of creative writing and literature in the Honors College. “I had been to Grand Gulch before. The canyon has running water and many ruins from ancient civilizations. I remember thinking ‘my students need to see this place.’”

Though the course serves as class credit in the Honors College, Caswell said it is also a chance for students to learn about community and solitude and also to explore the hidden parts of themselves.

“The focus of the course is experiencing the outdoors in a community - the small group - and in solitude,” Caswell said. “All of the projects come from those two realms.”

Vision Quest

While in Utah, the students camped and backpacked for a week without any of civilization’s luxuries, like showers, electricity or bathrooms. But the most important part of the trip was what the students called a vision fast.

“The vision fast relies on the principle of getting away from the world to see things more clearly,” Natarajan said. “You go into it thinking about a certain problem or situation. The hard part is coming out with a decision. I’ll definitely take this experience with me.”

Each student could complete an optional fast for 36 hours in a ceremony designed to sever them from each other and society. They were allowed water, a sleeping bag and a journal for their solo experience. All 10 students accepted the challenge and only drank water on their vision fast.

Into the Outdoors

To help the students survive their outdoor experiences safely, the group brought Clay Thomas along for the ride. Thomson is a coordinator for the Outdoor Pursuits Center.

Caswell and Thomas’ responsibilities included working with the group, checking over their equipment, guiding the group through the canyon, cooking the food and making sure the students were safe during their solo experiences.

“This was a great group,” Thomas said. “It is wonderful to see a group of students searching for a deeper meaning within themselves.

“Nature provides a great medium to explore yourself without any distractions. This is an environment where you become self-dependant and dependant on the people around you. That’s not something you learn in a textbook.”

Spiritual Journey

At the end of the semester, each student prepared a presentation about his or her experiences including a nonfiction essay, a set of homemade rock paintings, photography exhibits, poems, a collage book, pottery and a documentary film.

Each project contained discoveries made in the canyon, the feelings behind memories they held and extra research about a topic related to the canyon, such as the symbols in rock paintings, group cohesiveness, ancient cultures or the journey of the spirit.

Erin Hoelting, a natural history and humanities major, created a collage book entitled “Winding it Down.” She included memories of different events, pictures from the trip and even the notes she took in her classes.

“The journey to Grand Gulch was wonderful,” Hoelting said during her presentation. “But more important to me was the journey through the class and the community we formed. I really believe I’ve learned how to better organize my thoughts through this experience.”

 Throughout the presentation, the students were referred to as “initiated adults” by Caswell because of what their experiences taught them.

“Children cannot face the darkness alone,” Caswell said. “When you immerse yourself in nature, you go beyond nature into the human mind and the human imagination.”