The CRI study abroad australia expedition is a premiere learning opportunity for US college students. Each semester we organize a special study abroad Australia program for college students that combines different outdoor adventure activities and college courses in the Humanities. This is a unique study abroad australia program.

Castle Rock Semester College Study Abroad

The study abroad australia program's goal is to make college more meaningful for students. The Castle Rock Institute is a wilderness-based research center for the Humanities affiliated with Brevard College (a 4-year, liberal arts college in western North Carolina). Each semester, the study abroad australia program seeks applications from college students from the United States to live, travel, study abroad and experience the natural world together both in NC and Australia. Based in a lodge set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the Institute aims to enliven the Humanities through focused interdisciplinary classwork, attention to community living, and through organized group outdoor activities. The Castle Rock Institute is dedicated to investigating links between scholarship in the Humanities and the practical dimensions of human life in the natural and social world.

As part of the expedition, the Castle Rock Institute organizes for the expedition a variety of outdoor adventure activities. The Institute takes seriously the idea that there is a fundamental connection between body and mind, between the embodied practice of lived experience and the more abstract, theoretical concerns of the intellect. It sees, in other words, a mutually reinforcing relationship between direct and intense contact with the outdoor world and the scholarly goals central to the Humanities. Focusing on meaningful expressions of this relationship, this program challenges students to find a balance between real life and their studies. Beyond the amazing outdoor adventure experiences that await expedition participants, this offers a unique educational experience as well.

The Institute encourages interdisciplinary thought and experimentation by focusing on a particular issue, idea or theme drawn from the Humanities disciplines. This theme serves as the main topic of discussion for students on the expedition. The curriculum at the Castle Rock Institute is organized thematically. Accordingly, each class explicitly considers how insights offered by the other disciplines can contribute to an overall understanding of the theme at hand. For example, a semester devoted to the notion of "otherness" may consider how the use of masks in Aboriginal religious rituals or how French Existentialist conceptions of self can inform a Henry James novel, or can affect the composition of a painting or pencil sketch.

The CRI program aims to dissolve the ordinarily fragmented experience most college students find when they arrive at college. Balancing physical, personal, and intellectual challenges allows this to be a success.