<p>I thought this might be something that could interest you prospective students. At UVA, we have a short term during Winter Break called the J-Term. Here’s an interesting article about it:</p>
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Faculty and students at the University of Virginia have quickly embraced a new tradition as the successful January Term heads into its third year.</p>
<p>Come next month, hundreds of U.Va. students will be embarking on academic adventures during J-term. The two-week, three-credit, intensive program has increased to 36 classes - a mixture of new offerings along with some courses brought back by popular demand. The number of study abroad sessions has doubled from four to eight.</p>
<p>“Faculty and students have seen J-term as a great opportunity and they’ve seized it,” said Dudley J. Doane, director of the winter program, as well as Summer Session. “We get exciting course proposals.”</p>
<p>Professors get the chance to create a different kind of learning experience for students and delve into a subject in new or different ways. About 450 students will get the chance to work with 26 faculty members (and 14 graduate instructors) whose classes they wouldn’t necessarily take during the regular semesters, Doane said. Most of the courses, which run from Jan. 2 through 12, have 20 or fewer students.</p>
<p>For those programs going abroad, the participants will focus on education and culture in Ghana, environmental study in Belize, and economic development in Nicaragua or in Tanzania. They’ll study literature in Ireland or Germany, Renaissance art in Italy or cinema in Spain.</p>
<p>Some students won’t need a passport for their off-grounds experience but will travel to view art in New York City museums with Jill Hartz, director of the University’s museum, to examine the modern and historic Pueblo culture in New Mexico with archaeologist Stephen Plog or to study a wildlife refuge on Poplar Island in professor Michael Gorman’s “Earth Systems Engineering Management” course.</p>
<p>In one of several new classes offered this year, a group of students will work with Robert L. Pressey, an internationally acclaimed conservation biologist, appointed as this year’s Thomas Jefferson Foundation Visiting Professor. Pressey, from the University of Queensland in Australia, will teach his innovative ideas for systematic environmental planning and protection.
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<p>For the entire article, click here: <a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=1260[/url] ”>http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=1260</a></p> ;