The Center for Experiential Learning

About 15 students enrolled in a special, weeklong seminar in August entitled “Embracing Detroit and its Environments. It offered students interdisciplinary classroom learning, reflection and immersive experiences in Detroit.

Spending a week reflecting some of Detroit’s cultural and ecological treasures was an eye-opening experience for Rune Cuthrell.

Exploring places such the Black Bottom neighborhood and Belle Isle showed Cuthrell and their Schoolcraft College classmates a part of Detroit they perhaps may not have understood before.

Geology instructor holding large rock — Geology instructor Samer Hariri speaks to students during the summer seminar “Embracing Detroit and its Environments.” (Photo by Rune Cuthrell)

“This week allowed me to view Detroit in a new way and to learn some history I had never been acquainted with before,” they said. “I was profoundly impacted by our visits to Lafayette Park, as well as the Wright Museum of African American History.”

About 15 students enrolled in a special, weeklong seminar that took place in August. Entitled “Embracing Detroit and its Environments,” was sponsored by Schoolcraft College’s Center for Experiential Learning (CEL) – offering students interdisciplinary classroom learning, reflection and immersive experiences in Detroit.

Participants in this non-credit fellowship program embarked on learning in the classroom and in the city, exploring topics such as urban renewal, poetry, the impact of invasive species on biodiversity and more. Students were taught by several Schoolcraft College instructors, all from varying disciplines.

Capping the week, students stepped onto a boat and took a tour of the Detroit River, exploring the waterway’s ecological and historical impact on the region.

Those who signed up for the seminar found it was the perfect way to connect with the city.

group student photo with Detroit backdrop — A group photo taken of the students and faculty who participated in the summer seminar “Embracing Detroit and its Environments.”

“This is an opportunity for me to get back into the community, because I think you should live and serve in the community in which you reside,” said Patti Conover, a post-traditional student who’s seeking a position in law after working several decades as a trauma nurse. “In order for me to do that as a student, I have to learn and appreciate and acknowledge not only the differences in culture, but in people and how people and the environment collaborate.”

The program is one that’s been in the works for two years, said Errin Stegich-Moloney, the Manager of the Center for Experiential Learning at Schoolcraft College. This seminar provided students with ample enrichment opportunities and gave them a baseline to better understand the region around them.

“We had incredible engagement during the seminar, and I’m so happy to see the CEL Summer Seminar Fellowship become a huge success,” Stegich-Moloney said. “Having our students better understand the world around them was the goal, and after seeing the students present on their findings, it’s clear our students have a better understanding of the city.”

Cuthrell certainly felt the impact of the week. They said it made them think harder about the impacts left on places like Detroit, and they said it will be something they will carry with them for a long, long time.

“The CEL Summer Seminar Fellowship as a whole encouraged me to contemplate what justice means to me, what it means for our environment and what it means for the City of Detroit,” they said. “The fellowship was an enriching journey that I will not soon forget.”

journal page of images and handwritten notes — A page from Rune Cuthrell’s journal during the seminar. Students throughout the week journaled their experiences as they traveled. (Photo by Rune Cuthrell)

Author and Illustrator Geo Rutherford was a guest at Schoolcraft College March 11 during an event put on by The Center for Experiential Learning highlighting the publishing industry.

Nothing about Geo Rutherford’s path to publishing her book Spooky Lakes was ordinary.

The author and illustrator for Spooky Lakes, a book based on her viral TikTok and Instagram series highlighting fascinating tales of bodies of water across the globe, found success in a way most authors don’t: through their social media account.

“It’s a weird journey. You can’t replicate it very easily, I would say,” said Rutherford, who lives in Wisconsin. “It’s hard to get online and accidently become internet famous and have people reach out to you and then you illustrate a book even though you were really just a high school teacher and you don’t really know how you ended up here in the first place.

“It’s definitely a different approach for the whole thing.”

students reviewing booklet pages in print — Geo Rutherford, author and illustrator of Spooky Lakes, speaks to Schoolcraft College students during a workshop.

Rutherford was a guest at Schoolcraft College March 11 during an event put on by The Center for Experiential Learning. Taking part in a panel discussion on the exciting world of publishing, Rutherford joined several Schoolcraft College faculty members in discussing their experiences in publishing, including Art faculty member Paula Imirzian and English faculty members Brynne Barnes and Kiel Phegley.

Speaking to students in the Kehrl Auditorium inside the Vistatech Center during a panel hosted by Errin Stegich, the director of The Center for Experiential Learning, all four authors made it clear how different the publishing world can be from one author to the next.

Phegley, whose work includes several licensed titles for properties such as Sonic the Hedgehog, said it can take quite a while before an author’s work gets noticed. He spoke about some of his first attempts at getting published, which included flying to the East Coast for a meeting that just didn’t pan out.

“I flew to New Jersey to try to sell this book I had been writing in grad school and when I got there, I realized it was not you meeting with many people: they matched you with one person,” he said. “I sat across from the one person and I said, ‘Here’s the book I wrote, here’s my query letter,’ and she said, “Yeah, this isn’t really my thing.’ “I thought, ‘God in heaven, what am I doing here?’”

It wasn’t until Kegley returned to Michigan that he found a match for someone to publish with. A lunch with a local representative got him rolling and eventually led to a deal.

In addition to participating in a panel discussion, Rutherford also hosted a workshop in Imirzian’s illustration course.

Her book, Spooky Lakes, came out in 2024. It highlights the mysterious bodies of water throughout the world and the wonders that lie beneath the waves. The book stems from her viral online series “Spooky Lake Month,” a short-form video series highlighting a mysterious lake in under three minutes.

Rutherford plans on writing two additional books in her series that will come out in the coming years. She understands trends come and go and is just excited at the ride she’s on when it comes to publishing her series.

“I just see everything as an opportunity and I’ve been just I’m open for to just taking moments and opportunities where they come,” Rutherford said.