Woolman Semester

The Woolman Semester is a semester school focused on the intersections of peace, social justice, and sustainability. Students come from all over the country to attend Woolman for a single semester during their high school junior, senior, or gap year. Students spend a semester deeply immersed in contemporary topics and exploring issues first hand as well as working with each other and the staff and interns to run the daily operations of the school, including cooking meals, chopping firewood, and growing and harvesting the food eaten at the school.The classes of the program are Global Thinking, Peace Studies, Environmental Science, Non-violent Communication, Ceramics, and Farm to Table. Woolman is the only Quaker (Friends) semester school in the country, and in accordance with the philosophy of Quaker Education the Woolman Semester curriculum centers around collaboration, activism, and open inquiry into local and global issues.General informationThe campus is nestled in the Sierra foothills on 236 acres of field and forest. The nearest towns are Grass Valley and Nevada City, California.The Woolman Semester began in spring of 2004, after a two-year restructuring period. Previously, the campus had been home to the John Woolman School, a four year high school that served the community from 1963 to 2001.The mission of the school is to weave together peace, sustainability, and social action into an intensely rigorous academic experience.AcademicsWoolman Semester enriches a typical high school curriculum with college-level, seminar-style course work and experiential opportunities that promote lifelong learning, personal growth and intellectual commitment.