What is NELP?
NELP is a University of Michigan academic program that takes place off campus during the Spring half term. UM faculty and other instructors teach the courses, and students earn nine regular UM credits in upper-level English classes.
The program takes place at a big camp on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. For six and a half weeks, 40 students and 12 or 13 UM instructors live and work together closely, reading New England authors, writing, and exploring the New England countryside, its people, culture, and history.
In addition to formal academic work in literature and writing, the intellectual experience of the program often includesart, camping, nature-study, canoeing, music, cooking--and many other interests brought each year by students and staff. Student-teaching, where students work with instructors to teach classes on topics students choose themselves, is another important part of the program.
NELP also includes trips to places of natural and cultural interest, including hiking and camping trips in the White Mountain National Forest so we can have class in the woods, on a mountainside, or along our way to the summit. We climb at least three mountains during the program. These climbs are physically challenging for most people, but can be accomplished by nearly everyone with the right frame of mind.
Camp facilities are simple though there are showers and toilets. Cabins are unheated, but a heated area is available for reading and classes. The weather is cold when the program begins, but by the time NELP ends in mid-June, the weather is warm, summer has started, and most people are swimming between classes.
