Community Travel
The History of Utopian Communities community visited communes, monasteries, religious retreats, and former utopian communities to connect what they were learning in the classroom and in some cases, experience it firsthand.
Fall Retreat
Students in the community drafted their own social contract and experiment with mutually agreed upon rules to live by in the residence hall. Over the retreat, held in Luray, Virginia, students spent a weekend getting to know each other, discuss summer readings, interact in meaningful conversations with staff and faculty, and to develop their social contract.
Lancaster County and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Over fall break, the community traveled to Pennsylvania visit several faith and social experiment communities in practice.
In Lancaster County, students:
- Stayed at an Amish Bed and Breakfast
- Interacted with and interviewed several Amish families
- Visited the Ephrata Cloister
- Visited the Hans Herr House museum
In Philadelphia, students:
- Stayed at, visited with and interviewed members of the Simple Way community
- Visited Broad Street Ministries
- Met with scholars at Swarthmore College
- Visited and met with members of the Pendle Hill community
- Visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art and toured the Rembrandt exhibit
Locally Near Richmond
During several day trips, students also benefited from visiting several intentional communities within 30 miles of campus:
- Visited with members of Richmond Hill
- Visited with members of the intentional communities: Twin Oaks and Acorn