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  2. First Year Programs And Orientation
  3. Orientation Explore!
   

    Orientation Explore!

    Washington College’s signature orientation program - Explore! gives new students the opportunity to make close friends and learn more about our local region. Each experience is designed around a special interest area and offers dynamic, experiential activities that help students acclimate to their new environment and connect with a small group of like-minded peers. 

    Making History Making Museums

    Paddle the Chester

    BioBlitz

    The Beautiful and the Strange

    Sailing the Sultana

    Experience the Chester — Live on It!

    Adventure Challenge

    Explore! makes the transition to college less daunting. Beginning college life with a small group endeavor facilitates a personalized welcome and sense of belonging within our Washington College community. These shared experiences often become the most fond and memorable moments students have of Washington College. 

    What to expect:

    After moving in on Monday, students will have two full days of on-campus introductions to college life. Orientation Explore! begins on Thursday and runs until Saturday evening, giving students ample time to rest up for their first day of classes the following Monday.

    Each experience is unique. Some groups are based on campus, some stay off-campus. All groups do a mix of on and off campus adventures. Selections are designed to appeal to many different interests and accommodate individual needs (dietary, mobility, stamina . . .). 

    Students who have paid their deposit are able to sign up for Orientation Explore! here. 

    Experiences are filled on a first come, first served basis.  Explore! assignments will be announced at Flock Together in June.

     

    Explore! Summer 2024    

    Coming Soon: Even more 2024 Orientation Explore! experiences. Below are confirmed experiences for this year. Check back for more great options.    

    Students kayaking on the Chester River

    Guided by naturalists from our local Sultana Education Foundation, you will embark on a series of canoe trips on the Chester River. Each day will be spent exploring a different section of the river. Fishing, swimming, tromping in the mudflats, and learning about the natural history of the Mighty Chester River will keep you engaged by day. Evenings will be spent on land enjoying music and small group socials back in Chestertown. Great memories await. 

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Spend your days kayaking, fishing, and exploring this rural Chesapeake tributary. Your group will visit an historic tidewater nature preserve and hike along shoreline trails. Evenings will include riverside campfires and moonlit paddle outings. This three-day and two-night camping trip along the lovely Sassafras River is perfect for outdoor enthusiasts.

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Camping

    Into wildlife? Love the outdoors? Ever want to know exactly who or what you're sharing your space with? Come dive in deep into surveying all the organisms residing on our River and Field Campus! Led by wildlife biologists, work on your field skills while enjoying good company, hike by moonlight while doing moth surveys, cool off in the Chester River while seeking aquatic species & fishing! There's so much to explore at RAFC and this is a great way to see it all!

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Join passionate instructors on a journey you will carry with you for a lifetime! We provide a peaceful environment to deepen connection with self, community, and a life fully realized in the present moment.  Get ready for sunset kayaking on the river, swimming in the Chesapeake Bay, foraging for wild foods, practicing mindfulness, receiving personalized nutritional guidance, and meeting local healing.

     
    Stamina: Moderate
    Location: Mix of Indoors and Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    On a voyage aboard the 18th-century Royal Navy schooner Sultana, students will explore the rich history and landscape of the Chesapeake Bay region. They will help the captain by being a part of the crew itself (no sailing experience needed!), while also learning about the maritime and piratical lives of the past. With camping, sailing, sunset canoe expeditions, and an epic naval battle to highlight our trip, students will also enjoy some leisurely time and excellent cookout food while admiring the scenic waterfront views. The Sultana will sail down the Chester River and dock at The Reward, a historic colonial estate that offers students the chance to play games, relax, and take an evening hike. Participants will sleep in tents near the water. The program is geared toward students with an interest in history or American studies, although all are welcome to participate. This program is limited to 10 participants, first come, first served.

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Camping

    Navigate the Chester River with Echo Hill Outdoor School (EHOS) on their historic wooden workboats. Live aboard the skipjack Elsworth and buy boat Annie D and experience these living legacies of Maryland history while on this three-day, two-night expedition, led by EHOS captains who spend much of their lives on the Chester River. Spend your days fishing, meeting local watermen, swimming, and exploring the ecology of rural coastlines along the Chester River.

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Camping

    Immerse yourself in an ecologically rich and adventurous bayside retreat. On Echo Hill Outdoor School's extensive challenge course participants have the opportunity to set goals, design individual challenges, and support one antoher. Climb the Giant’s Ladder -  Soar down the Zip Line - Swoosh through the air on the Giant Swing - Boost your confidence and support your group in this great outdoor adventure - Make meaningful memories bonding with friends and exploring in nature. All activities are by choice - students reside at the air conditioned retreat lodge.

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Rustic Lodge

    Are you interested in home gardening or kayaking? How about river boat rides and horticultural masterpieces? Whether you’re a green-things enthusiast or a waterway wanderer, there's an adventure waiting for you! Start your adventure by visiting our lush campus garden, where you can practice your gardening skills by propagating your very own plant to keep. After that, immerse yourself in the beauty of the Eastern Shore's flora and fauna on an afternoon kayaking trip. As we continue our journey, prepare to be awe-struck by the landscapes of Longwood Gardens, one of America’s most impressive botanical gardens, with over 1,000 acres of formal gardens, woodlands, and meadows, as well as a magnificent indoor plant conservatory. To cap off the experience, live the local life by visiting the Chestertown Farmers Market and browse the charming farm and small business vendors, before taking the afternoon to relax on a river boat ride along the Chester River.

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    First-year students set off from starting line in footrace on lawn
    Are you a beach lover? Do you enjoy having fun and getting in some physical activity? Learn Beach tennis, one of the fastest growing sports in the world! Beach tennis is a combination of beach volleyball, tennis and badminton. The sport is fast moving, fun and easy to learn and play. Come make new friends while soaking up the sand and sun at Betterton Beach and getting a great workout too. No experience or equipment necessary. Choose this Explore! if you want to engage in high level fitness activity.
     
    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Sailboats, big and small, have long been a part of the working and recreational environment on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Come learn about the history of sailing on the bay and learn the basics for recreational sailing on the Chester River. No prior sailing experience needed to enjoy this adventure.

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Participants of this program will EXPLORE everything Football. Focus will include interactive activities related to the NFL and Fantasy football. This will be a great way to connect with your classmates who love the game and want to learn more about it. 

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mix of Indoors and Outdoors — Time in a city
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Whether you're interested in tabletop rpgs, board games, card games, dice games, or some other kind of game, we've got you covered. With dozens of physical game offerings with Washington Interactive Gaming Society (WIGS) you'll find something that sparks your interest. Washington College and the Chestertown community has a rich offering of games and gamers, so please come introduce yourself and join us for a few days packed full of games.

    Stamina: Low key
    Location: Mostly Indoors — Time in a city
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Fitness friends are the best friends. Start your college career with healthy habits. Fitness classes, weightlifting, workout tips, healthy eats, and a small supportive group are what this Explore! experience is all about. If you are interested in wellness, this is the pick for you.
     
    Stamina: Moderate
    Location: Mostly Indoors
    Housing: Residence Hall
    Spend your days riding horses, learning about horse health & welfare, and participating in fun, horse-themed activities. Novice and experienced riders are welcome. No riding experience is necessary. 
     
    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Do you play video games? Go head to head in some of your favorite games like Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros and Fortnite. Great way to have fun, play video games and meet some of your new classmates!

    Stamina: Low-Key
    Location: Mostly Indoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

     

    Students and staff at Minary's Dream Alliance build picnic tables

    On each day of this program, Sultana Education Foundation will lead you on an exploration of a different area of the county and its unique culture. One day might take you out to Oyster Aquaculture Farm and then an exploration of the old waterman's town, Rock Hall. Another day might take you to the northeastern part of the county and the Sassafras River where you will explore small historical towns and a farm and manor house that dates to the beginning of English colonization. Another day, you will explore historic Chestertown and the surrounding areas beyond Washington College. On these outings, you will experience both the rich history and modern treasures of Kent County. This will be a wonderful opportunity to immerse yourself in your new home! Evenings will be spent on land enjoying music and small group socials back in Chestertown. Great memories await!

    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Join us for a 3-day exploration of regional food focusing on Chestertown and Kent County! Visit local farms and learn about the food they are producing and processing. Take a downtown tour of restaurants and engage with local business owners and their customers. Spend an evening cooking a meal for yourself and your Explore! companions. Check out the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market in Chestertown. And spend your final evening taking a cruise on the Center for Environment and Society’s boat, the Callinectes.

    Stamina: Moderate
    Location: Mix of Indoors and Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    How do you want to change the world? How can you create change right here in your new home at Washington College? What opportunities, obstacles, and models exist for college students to build ethical and collaborative relationships with community partners? In this program, led by the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, you will learn about the long history of political action that has happened right here in Chestertown, Md. You will explore the history of Civil Rights here on the Eastern Shore and along the Chester River. You will meet the individuals who are making a difference here today through public service. Most of all, you'll find ways to get involved in the community and find ways to make a difference beyond our campus.

    Stamina: Moderate
    Location: Mostly Outdoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Over three days you will tour art galleries, watch art demonstrations, work with clay, dabble in photography, paint a mural, and gain an appreciation for the rich visual arts that abound in Kent County. Sessions will be led by the professional artists of Chestertown RiverArts. RiverArts is a local nonprofit in the heart of Chestertown that offers Community Creativity and Connection through the Arts.

    Stamina: Low-Key
    Location: Mostly Indoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

     

    Students photographing a musuem artifact to create a VR version

    Join the Washington College GIS Program in exploring campus, downtown Chestertown, and Washington DC! GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is the science of place, using data that is attached to a unique location in the real world. You'll use GIS as a tool to visualize the world around you. On the first day, you'll meet like-minded students and the Washington College GIS staff, while investigating the geography of the Chesapeake Bay with the Sultana Education Foundation. Then you'll travel to the National Air and Space Museum in DC to learn about satellites and how they're used to map the globe's surface. Finally, you'll adventure locally by visiting the Chestertown Farmers Market, completing a scavenger hunt around campus, and cruising down the Chester River on a college research boat. Learn to think spatially and explore all that GIS has to offer!
     
    Stamina: Moderate
    Location: Mix of Indoors & Outdoors — Time in a city
    Housing: Residence Hall
    This program is perfect for a novice or experienced baker, there is something for everyone! Students will learn kitchen and baking basics and have opportunities to expand their skills. We will experiment with different techniques and types of baking. They will visit a local bakery to see a larger-scale operation and explore our local community. Our adventure will culminate in a Grocery Games/Chopped style bake-off with celebrity judges!
     

    Stamina: Low Key
    Location: Mostly Indoors
    Housing: Residence Halls

    In this Explore! program, students will explore Mount Vernon (President George Washington’s private residence) and the National Mall in Washington, DC. The National Mall is 2 ½ miles (stretching east to west) of green space, monuments, and memorials, where millions of visitors each year encounter an idealized version of American identity, and where numerous gatherings and protests occur each year. We will explore how generations of politicians, artists, and citizens have shaped field, swamp, and reclaimed river into a shared national civic memory—and how this “memory” continues to evolve. We will also visit some of the museums and government buildings near the National Mall, to further explore some of the ways leadership is being remembered and reimagined. Note: This program includes a lot of walking, but is accessible to students with mobility challenges.
     
    Stamina: Active
    Location: Mostly Outdoors — Time in a City
    Housing: Residence Hall and Hotel
    Who gets to decide what makes it into a museum’s collection? Whose stories are lifted up to be included on the panels, audio tours, and online displays that show us as learners what is important to know about history? Conversely, which parts of history are not on display, and why? Perhaps most importantly, what can you, as a Washington College student, do if you want to participate in how history is told in public spaces? In this orientation program, we will consider how public spaces of history, like museums, walking tours and monuments tell their stories. We will explore the local history of Chestertown, and of Kent County, by visiting local historical sites and meeting with some of our community’s great historians. We will travel to regional museums and speak with people doing behind-the-scenes work in some of our region’s most interesting museums and cultural sites. Finally, we will partner with a local museum to help them begin the process of telling their story to the wider world by digitizing objects in their collection and building a virtual museum tour.
     
    Stamina: Moderate
    Location: Mostly Indoors — Time in a city
    Housing: Residence Hall
    This program uses a basic fundamental college student food, pizza, to dive deep into important food, diet and health issues connecting participants with what they eat on a powerful level! While spending 3 days making a pizza entirely from scratch we will learn about, discuss and address topics including food access, sourcing locally, ethically and sustainably, and cooking to maximize the taste, safety and nutritional quality of food. While participating in the program we will also use nutrition, biology, chemistry, math, anthropology, and physics. The class culminates in each student cooking and eating their own wood fired pizza using ingredients they made entirely from scratch themselves.
     
    Stamina: Low-Key
    Location: Mostly Indoors
    Residence Hall

    Arts and nature come together in a creative splash of color and community.  Artists of all levels (no experience or talent required) contribute to our ever-evolving primary forest succession mural in the student center.  Led by community muralist and creative engineer, Kayti Didriksen, participants will paint with potatoes, bubble wrap, and all sorts of interesting items, adding layers and texture to this artistic masterpiece that serves as a visual metaphor for growth and diversity.

    Stamina: Low-Key
    Location: Mostly Indoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

    Experience the magic of theatre: drama, improv, scripts, costumes, lighting, sets ... so much to explore. Spend your days in Washington College’s drama spaces, exploring local theatres, and taking in a show.  

    Stamina: Moderate
    Location: Mostly Indoors
    Housing: Residence Hall

     

    Disability Services

    Washington College encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any accommodation, please contact the Office of Academic Skills at 410.778.7860 or .