Lake Champlain Campus-to-Campus Connections Conference

The Vermont campuses gathered at Champlain College in Burlington on August 14th to continue building inter-campus relationships, share experiences from an exciting summer term, and begin preparations for a large Global Campus conference in Burlington on November 3rd. The conference was held in response to the participants voice and request for a fun and social event involving all the Vermont campuses.

The day of the conference was a beautiful, hot Friday morning and the excitement was incredible as participants arrived from all corners of the state. Old friends greeted one another and new connections were quickly initiated as folks registered and mingled as they found their seats.

A high point of the morning was a conversation with Ka and Non from Global Campus Thailand using Skype, an free internet tele-conferencing program. Ka and Non shared about their campuses in Thailand, halfway around the world and 12 hours earlier in time, and then the conference participants flooded them with questions. Does is snow in Thailand? What is the weather like now? What classes are participants teaching? How many participants are at each campus?

The conference continued with each campus presenting their Time Capsules. Representatives from each campus stood up and read a list of items that their campus was collecting for the time capsule. There were a few artifacts that folks brought to share as well. Afterwards, each table enjoyed a small group discussion regarding the events and adventures of the summer term. A spokesperson from each small group then presented what had been shared with the larger audience.

Folks were motivated to get down to the lakefront for lunch and an afternoon of fun! Most people walked down to the water from the college, despite the heat! We ate our lunch in a nice shady spot outside of the ECHO museum. After lunch we split into groups depending on what folks wanted to experience. The different groups went to ECHO, took a tour of some old boats, and enjoyed old-fashioned games and crafts. The activities were a perfect culmination to a summer term exploring history and culture in our respective communities.

Everyone departed with hugs, smiles, and a natural high from a day filled with friends, fun, and a great sense of pride in sharing their campuses with one another.