Unusual course offerings. Close interaction. Field experiences. These are just some of the things students experience as part of Summer Session and January Term (J-Term) at UVA. While our fall and spring semesters form the core of the academic year at the University, our summer and January offerings allow students to experience the institution from another perspective—one in which classes are smaller, the focus is streamlined and access to faculty is even greater. They’re an excellent way for students to not only advance against their degree requirements but to get a concentrated dose of “experiential learning”—from living on Grounds, to participating in strong residential communities, to learning outside the classroom, to collaborating with peers on exciting projects designed to advance knowledge in society.
1+k
Summer Session Classes
120+
January Term Classes
36%
Of UVA Students Take a Summer Session Class
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Maria Rincon-Lizarazo:
Morven kitchen garden is a one-acre living laboratory in sustainable market farming at UVA.
I took Politics of Food in J Term with Professor Friedman and I really became interested in where my food comes from.
This farm really caught my attention because it is organic, sustainable, local agriculture, the type of system that I wish everyone could become a part of. We carry out experiments, we grow organic produce and once a week we deliver bags of produce to subscribers to our community supported agriculture program.
It’s very interesting to see the excitement around local sustainable farms and all of the CSA shareholders excited to get food from students.
Gazpacho in the Garden is our annual fundraiser and we invite people from the community to come and celebrate the end of the summer season.
They’re seeing where their food is coming from and the best part is that they actually get to eat it here, right here in the garden with the people that are growing it.
It doesn’t get any more local than that!
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Each summer the ϳԹ offers a rich selection of courses to over four thousand students through its . Many of these courses are not available during the academic year. Summer Session's purpose is to supplement academic year course offerings, to facilitate fulfillment of undergraduate and graduate degree requirements, and to extend access to the resources of the ϳԹ to students enrolled at other colleges or universities, rising high school juniors and seniors and lifelong learners. At UVA, our Summer Session is designed to offer all of these things and more. With top faculty, rich coursework and a host of exciting extracurricular activities, Summer Session offers an environment of non-stop learning. Each year, more than 4,000 students take part—from current ‘Hoos to scholars from other Universities to rising high school junior and seniors.
I had never taken an art class before. I really want to try something different, I want to get my hands dirty. This class was my very first introduction to sculpture. I know I'm going to be doing something with clay, but sculpture was definitely much more than clay.
I'm really interested in making as a form of thinking, that the process of working with your hands can create knowledge. One of the first things that we did was we made an egg. It's a simple idea, you can sort of hold it in your head, and the egg form can mean lots of different things to people.
After we had finished our eggs, then we went to the professor's house and had it fired in his fire pit. Bill had given us an idea of what the eggs were going to look like. We had to say goodbye to this egg because it was going to come back very, very different.
I was really happy when I saw my egg. That completely blew me away, I was like, "Wow, did I actually make this?" It was amazing to be here, to work with my hands, to look at art in a different way. I'm hoping that it teaches them about process, about how things become over time.
It's o.k. to start not knowing what your final product should look like, the process just naturally moves you to the finish line.
I find it mentally exhilarating.
A unique and highly impactful learning experience, the ϳԹ's (J-Term) is a university-wide initiative sponsored by the Office of the Vice President and Provost. J-Term provides students with unique opportunities: new courses that address topics of current interest, study abroad programs, undergraduate research seminars and interdisciplinary courses. The intensive format of January Term classes encourages extensive student-faculty interaction and allows students to immerse themselves in a subject.