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Enjoying Life Outside the Classroom
Garrett Ray
Have you ever w^on-
dered what it would be
like to experience an entire
course in the outdoors, to
scale the highest peak in
the Blue Ridge Mountains,
and
build a
friend
ship with
twelve
other
people
while
camp
ing in
the crisp
cool
air of
autumn?
Ask the
stu
dents who attended the
field studies course to
Grandfather Mountain on
the weekend of October
17-19, led by professor. Dr.
Brad Daniel. The group set
up camp on a Friday night
in McCrae meadows at the
foot of the 5964 ft. moun
tain and spent their days
co-teaching about the flora,
habitats, geology, soils.
ecology, prevailing weather
patterns, and cultural his
tory surrounding the only
privately owned biosphere
reserve, and simply observ
ing the beauty of God’s
creation.
The
course was
filled with
a variety
of teach
ing oppor
tunities
for the
students
includ
ing the
Grand
father
Nature
Museum,
animal habitats, and a
number of traversed hiking
trails along the way. With
the aid of the ever-friendly
Grandfather naturalist
Jesse Pope, the group was
able to observe first hand
what happens behind the
scenes of the park, as well
as scale their way to the top
of McCrae Peak, the third
highest peak of the moun
tain, and catch a glimpse of
the Charlotte skyline nearly
100 miles away.
Montreat College
field courses are uniquely
designed immersion experi
ences for students to learn
various ecosystems outside
of the classroom. For more
information on the Envi
ronmental Studies majors
at Montreat College,
contact Dr. Brad Daniel at
bdaniel@montreat.edu, or
Dr. Brian Joyce, Depart
ment Chair, at bjoyce@
A Final Season as a Lady Cavalier
Heather Hable
Finalizing my last soccer
season here at Montreat,
I can not honestly say it
ended the way I had imag
ined. I remember wonder
ing throughout the sum
mer who God would bring
to coach us for my last
season. The upper class-
man and I kept a thread
on Facebook so that we
could share thoughts,
hopes, and prayer requests
throughout the summer. It
was not until July that we
finally had a name to go
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then
we shall seeface to face. Now I know in part; then I shall
knowfully, even as lamfully known.”
I Corinthians 13:12
into the position. We were
told our new coach would
be Don Maples from
Knoxville, TN.
Pre-season was set for
the beginning of August
and I had not even talked
with him. None of us
knew what to expect when
we arrived. With about as
many new girls as there
were returning players,
the diversity of the indi
viduals was obvious. But
the thread that held us all
together was the love for
the sport of soccer. This
is exactly what I love so
much about soccer—^you
can get a group of people
together who love soccer,
but maybe do not even
speak the same language
and throw a black and
white ball in the middle of
them, creating automatic
unity.
The season was full of
demanding practices, late
nights on the field until
we could no longer see
in front of us, and dance
parties in parking lots. We
were picked to have ended
montreat.edu. For more
information about Grand
father Mountain, visit
www.grandfather.com.
the conference in fourth
place but actually ended
in sbcth. We did so much
better than we thought
we could against some
difficult teams. However,
after some foolish mistakes
towards the end of the
season we had to finish
our last few games without
some key players.
Through this strange and
different season, Coach
Maples taught us some
of the most difficult life
lessons. I will never forget
See Lady Cavalier on pg. 10