Summer Campus

By Megan Rutherford and Emily Mitchell

It's never too late--or too early--to reap the advantages of a college education. During the summer, some colleges sponsor a rich array of learning opportunities, both on and off campus, for adults and youngsters. A sampling:

Spotting the Wild Giraffe

Pop quiz! The highest mountain in Africa is ____. Are elephant herds led by a male, a female or a breeding pair? The patterns on a giraffe's neck, like human fingerprints, are unique to each individual--true or false? These questions may be on the test Buddy Derrick, mayor of Lexington, Va., will give his grandsons John, 11, and Richard, 9, in preparation for going on WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY'S 13-day Family Adventure in Tanzania in August. Derrick insists that they study up for the trip because "half the joy of anything is anticipation--the other half is recalling it."

Derrick's pleasure in recalling his own trip to East Africa with W & L two years ago inspired him to sign on with his grandsons this year, the first time the university has opened up the trip to youngsters. Escorted by science professor Steven Desjardins, the group will safari into the great parks of Tanzania to see animals most Americans have viewed only in captivity or as cartoons. Children have an affinity for other children, so the itinerary also includes young humans--the travelers spend a day at a school in Arusha and share a meal of porridge and vegetables with Tanzanian students.

The price--$5,395 for adults, $3,595 for children (airfare included; for more information, call 540-463-8723)--ain't cheap, but Buddy Derrick feels the trip is worth it. "I wanted to instill in my grandkids a sense of living life to its fullest," he says, "and to me, going on an African safari is the absolute ultimate." Those grandkids will have to earn the privilege, however, by passing Derrick's test. Pssst, John and Richard, here are the answers: Kilimanjaro; a female; true.

Western Civilizations

Beautiful as Yellowstone National Park is, it's hard to imagine how Native Americans and early settlers ever survived in the rugged terrain around it. That's the mystery visitors are invited to solve during Rhodes Goes West, a week-long adventure held at the Lucius Burch Center for Western Tradition in Dubois, Wyo., the first in which the center and RHODES COLLEGE, in Memphis, Tenn., have been co-hosts.

Rhodes geologist Carol Ekstrom will trace 2.7 billion years of geological history to show how that dramatic landscape was formed. Her husband, anthropologist Peter Ekstrom, will discuss the interplay between the environment and the culture of the folks who put down roots there. The Dubois area was once the largest railroad-tie-producing region in the U.S., and Burch Center director Sharon Kahin will take visitors to camps once inhabited by Bunyanesque Scandinavian immigrants who hand-hewed ties with razor-sharp precision. The area is also the home of the Mountain Shoshoni, and archaeologist Larry Loendorf will lead hikes to the wooden structures they built to trap the bighorn sheep that were the staple of their diet, and to the site of giant petroglyphs used in their religious rites.

While participants may come to appreciate the resourcefulness of those who learned to adapt to rough conditions, they themselves will nestle comfortably in a nearby inn and attend lectures in a restored dude-ranch lodge once frequented by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Price per person: $1,200. Registration deadline: March 31. For more information, call 800-264-5969, or visit www.alumni.rhodes.edu/travel.html

Voyage of Discovery

Charles Darwin was a lackluster student whose disinterest, first in medicine and then in divinity, disappointed his father. But as the unpaid naturalist aboard H.M.S. Beagle, he was overcome with a rapacious curiosity that inspired him to make keen observations and meticulous notes, which he developed into theories that changed the course of scientific thought.

Following in Darwin's wake won't transform every child into a genius, but it may arouse a lifelong passion to understand the natural world. And the 10-day Quito and Galapagos Islands Cruise, with lecturers from WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, WELLESLEY COLLEGE and MISS PORTER'S SCHOOL, is designed to awaken the scientist that lurks in everyone. The journey (cost: $3,150 to $5,950; call 800-221-1944 for more information) begins July 31 with three days in Quito, where travelers eat lunch in a restaurant built on the edge of a volcanic crater, straddle the equator at the Middle of the World monument and shop at the Otavalo indigenous market. But the highlight is the seven-day cruise through the Galapagos, a living laboratory for learning about the geological forces that shaped the islands and the evolutionary pressures that molded their inhabitants, which include marine iguanas that spit out salt, giant tortoises that can weigh 500 lbs. and blue-footed boobies that woo mates with a bizarre display of stamping, flapping and whistling. The animals of the Galapagos are unique in their trust of human beings. "It's very moving," says Jelle Z. de Boer, professor of earth science from Wesleyan. "And it provides a lesson in what mankind has done to nature elsewhere."

Music in the Mountains

Packing a bagpipe and tin whistles, Henry and Fran Frantz will head for the mountains this summer. With their children Becca and Hank, the Decatur, Ga., couple will be making music at the Swannanoa Gathering held at WARREN WILSON COLLEGE in Asheville, N.C. From July 9 through Aug. 5, the campus plays host to six one-week workshops led by fiddlers, pipers, guitarists, step dancers and folklorists from around the world. Three of the workshops--Celtic Week, Sing Swing and String Week and Old-Time Music Week--welcome adults and children.

Tuition for adults is $320 a week, and the children's fee is a mere $85. Grown-ups pay $240 for food and dorm housing, and children can bunk with parents for free (call 828-298-3434, or visit www.swangathering.org for more information). Youngsters have breakfast and lunch with their parents and spend most of the day with children's program leader Denisa Rullmoss and her assistants. Kids visit a nearby nature center, explore the creeks and woods in the surrounding area, make candles, learn songs and play several kinds of instruments. They are not only exposed to a variety of music but hear it played and sung by world-class musicians.

A Shared Experience Apart

"You see your parents as much or as little as you like," says Judy Schechter of the family program on the CORNELL UNIVERSITY campus. "And that is very liberating." A New York City lawyer, Schechter, 37, was just seven when she started going to the college's summer-vacation weeks with her family. The program was in its infancy, but over the years some 20,000 adults and children have traveled to New York State's Finger Lakes district for a summer smorgasbord of outdoor activities and the workshops and seminars taught by top Cornell faculty.

Youngsters may stay with their parents in a dorm or an off-campus hotel or share a room with their peers, supervised by live-in Cornell counselors. Costs vary according to age, but a couple with two children under 13 can spend as little as $2,420 for a full week's lodging, food and courses.

In classrooms, adults study literature, history or science, and there are offerings in the arts and sports, including a golf clinic on Cornell's course designed by Robert Trent Jones. Days and nights are rounded out with lectures, films and walks scheduled with Cornell naturalists. During free time, boating on the lake and swimming below Ithaca's falls are favorites of all ages. College students take over child sitting in the evening, and an adults-only lounge provides a place for quiet conversation over coffee or wine. Call 607-255-6260, or see www.cau.cornell.edu for information.

The Maine Chance

"This is my favorite place on earth," declares Carl Heider. The place is 108-sq.-mi. Mount Desert Island, midway up the Maine coast. Heider, a retired New Jersey teacher, helped set up the family "camp" at the island's COLLEGE OF THE ATLANTIC 10 years ago, and has returned every summer since to help kids and grownups learn about the environment while enjoying Maine's rugged beauty.

"Once you park your car at the college," says Marsha Ulrich of Mohnton, Pa., "you don't have to spend another dime or drive anywhere." She and her husband James, both teachers, have taken their children to the campus for five years, and this summer they are going back with their 17-year-old. "It's a great vacation for me," says Marsha, "because I never have to decide what or when we're going to eat." The shorefront college has its own garden to supply the cafeteria with fresh vegetables and fruit, and many families pick blueberries and bring them to the kitchen for a special treat. The adult fee is $575 and includes all meals, accommodations and field trips. Children pay from $140 to $250. The telephone number is 207-288-5015, and the website is www.coa.edu

For some 25 families who attend one of the six week-long programs, Heider and local naturalists lead geology and ecology hikes around the island's Acadia National Park, the only national park in New England. On participants' free half-days, Heider and staff guide them to remote places on the island. "They know all the nooks and crannies," says Marsha. "What's nice is that when you get to some of the beaches they know about, no one else is there." Each week offers a boat excursion on the ocean to observe humpback whales and a trip to the mainland to spend time at Bar Harbor's oceanarium and its lobster hatchery. Along the shore, there are walks to learn about the creatures that reside in tidal pools. Says Heider: "We turn kids on at an early age to outdoor science the way it should be."