Hiking Hadrian’s Wall
During the summer of 2019, 12 students and two faculty members spent 16 days hiking Hadrian’s Wall — an ancient barrier that marked the northwest border of the Roman Empire and that dates to year 122 in the current era.
The Earlham team arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland, and headed south into England to begin an 80-mile hike from Newcastle to Carlisle spanning the English countryside. Hostels, historic homes or small countryside inns, even organic farms, provided lodging as the team traversed what is now left of the historical border wall for nine of the 16 days they spent abroad. The team also visited York before departing back to the United States.
Students completed self-designed projects as part of the experience. Program participants represented majors from across the curriculum including Ancient and Classical Studies, History, Sociology-Anthropology, Politics, English, Environmental Sustainability, Japanese Studies, and Geology.
A sampling of student projects resulting from the trip ranged from multimedia projects, essays and works of fiction, a linguistics study, research and analysis from the National Museum of Scotland, and a geographic information system story map.
“The overall experience was really open-ended, which allowed for a lot of personalization of these projects. “I’ve always loved the humanities and the classical world, but hiking Hadrian’s Wall really solidified my interest in being an Ancient and Classical Studies major. Being able to focus on areas outside of the city of Rome, and the inner-Roman empire, and looking more at the outer provinces is something I really fell in love with.”
— Fiona Kelly ’21
THE Epic ADVANTAGE
The Hadrian Wall experience is just one of the experiences students could have as part of the Epic Advantage.
Earlham delivers an extraordinary liberal arts experience through the Epic initiative. Epic is a four-year journey that integrates the academic major with transformative learning experiences, including research, study abroad, internships, and leadership development, to prepare students exceptionally well for life beyond Earlham.