Westminster Expedition
Westminster Expedition is a semester-long travel experience through the American West centered on the environmental issues and ecosystems of the region. Students will earn 16 credits as they develop skills and knowledge to help them build a better future for the West.
Why confine your education between classroom walls when the world outside awaits? Join the Westminster Expedition and take your learning on the road. You’ll hear directly from the people engaged in work on the land, see the landscapes they care about, and experience the wonder of the American West.
Westminster’s place in the American West is significant—campus is driving-distance from many national parks and forests, famous for their picturesque landscapes. This presents a unique opportunity for students to interact with and learn from environmental scientists and activists, indigenous leaders, and community organizers. Westminster faculty will lead you and your peers through the region, allowing you to directly experience and learn from these landscapes and the people who call them home. Your classrooms will be the forests, rivers, canyons, and the wide-open deserts of the West—your textbooks will be the landscapes themselves.
Expedition Overview
Duration: ~15 weeks
Credits: 16
Next Expedition: Fall 2028
Timing: Expeditions occur every 3 years during Fall Semester. The expedition departs before the first day of class and returns before Thanksgiving Break.
If you have questions about the Westminster Expedition, email Brent Olsen at bolson@westminsteru.edu.
“Expedition was the single biggest, most impactful part of my entire education. When I think about what my education has been since grade school — when I've learned the most, where my ideas come from — it's from the Westminster Expedition.”
Boaz H.
(‘24)
The Prospective Route
Typically, the expedition heads north and west, spending time in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Montana before moving through the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Coast of Washington and Oregon. After a short break in Salt Lake City, the route continues through the Southwest—with stops in California, Arizona, and New Mexico—before returning through the Canyonlands of Southern Utah. At each stop on the Expedition, you’ll have the chance to understand the profound ways humans have connected with environments of the West and meet people who might inspire you to reimagine your relationship with the land.
Potential Course-related Stops
- Sites of environmental/cultural conflict or cooperation: the Holden Mine, the former sites of the Elwha and Klamath River dams, the Berkeley Pit, Coeur d'Alene, the border with Mexico, Los Alamos, Owens Valley, and the Salton Sea
- National parks and monuments: Yellowstone, North Cascades, Glacier, Organ Pipe, Great Basin, Mesa Verde, Bears Ears, Olympic, and Death Valley
- Native nations and sites: Burns Paiute Reservation, The Dalles, the Nez Perce Trail, Hopi, the Pueblos in New Mexico, Ute Mountain Ute Park, Flathead Indian Reservation and CSTK Bison Range, and Blackfeet Nation Bison Range
Sample Course Descriptions
Courses on the Expedition center issues at the heart of the contemporary American West. Students will earn 16 credits across a series of interconnected courses that explore these ideas. While most of the work is done on the road, students will be responsible for completing independent projects once they return from the trip. These projects can be completed remotely.
This course will examine the link between the landscapes of the West and the cultural meanings attached to them. The natural landscapes that surround us contain a world of meaning. The earth is home, habitat, playground, resources, and waste-sink. It is seen as dangerous and peaceful, bountiful and depleted, crowded and open. How do we reconcile these contradictions? What do they mean in terms of the cultural and political ecologies of particular places? How do the cultural values we attach to natural landscapes challenge our understanding of their history and our own involvement in the natural world? By looking at the cultural geography of the environment we can analyze how the meanings of nature are actively created and why it is contested by different people in different places. And, perhaps most importantly, why it matters.
Native peoples inhabited all of the American West; today’s Native nations exercise sovereignty over fragments of their former territory. This course investigates the Native history of some of the West, based upon the expedition itinerary. We will visit contemporary Native nations and investigate their roles in land-use issues; meeting with Native peoples, public lands managers, scholars, and activists on our route.
In 1872, the U.S. Congress declared the Yellowstone region the world’s first national park. In 1916, Congress created the National Park Service, which works to conserve the scenery, natural and historic objects, and wildlife found in our national parks. Today, the Park Service manages over 400 units with more than 20 different designations — including national parks, monuments, historical parks, military parks, preserves, recreation areas, seashores, parkways, lakeshores, and reserves — and nations around the world have created their own versions of national parks. In this course, we will investigate the implications of national parks on natural and human history.
Wars, ambushes, evictions, occupations, political and personal arguments, murders, and feuds. The environmental history of the West is full of conflict, but it is also full cooperation, agreement, help, love, encouragement, and collaboration. In this course, we will visit the sites of this conflict and cooperation. We will debate subjects, learn about the process, and work to understand the surrounding context.
Information for Prospective Students
Accommodations
You will live closely with your peers as a traveling community of scholars, with everyone actively contributing to the community. About 4 out of every 5 days will be spent camping, with the fifth day spent in a motel/lodge. Approximately every 2 weeks, the expedition will visit a larger city.
What to Bring
You’ll receive a complete packing list in the spring after registering for the expedition. In the meantime, please prepare for a range of weather conditions from warm sun to snow. You’ll need to bring:
- A week’s worth of versatile outdoor clothing (laundry stops will be about a week apart)
- A sleeping bag
- A sleeping pad
You may also want to bring a camera, games, music for the van, etc., for entertainment. Group equipment such as cooking and dining equipment, tents, etc., will be provided by Westminster. While camping, you and your peers will cook for each other. When visiting towns, you'll have a stipend to use for purchasing food on your own.
Health and Safety
Health, safety, and accessibility are top priorities of the expedition. Please keep in mind that this trip may be emotionally challenging at times. Although you'll be camping and potentially hiking, the expedition is not an outdoor recreation trip. You’ll never be far from the vans or medical care. At least 1 expedition leader will be a wilderness first responder, and other team members will be certified in wilderness first aid. Accommodations can be made for students who have temperature-sensitive medications, need regular access to medical care, or have dietary restrictions.
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Share Your Memorable Moments
Learning beyond the classroom can be a truly transformative experience. Sharing those experiences invites, inspires, and encourages others to step outside their comfort zones and try something new. Whether you’re embarking on a Field Semester, Expedition, May Term Study Experience, or Non-Credit Trip, follow a few tips for sharing your experience on social media.
