Intensive Week at the Ecole d’Humanité

Intensive Week is one of the highlights of the student experience at the Ecole d’Humanité. Each year in the fall term, our students take a break from our regular boarding school rhythm and dive into a week-long project. During intensive week, students participate in projects various and sundry – silversmithing, spelunking, or staging a play –  where they can explore new topics, uncover hidden talents and learn valuable skills.  

In line with the Ecole philosophy, the talents and interests of the students are always taken into account when we plan our Intensive Week projects, and they are invited to choose a project that interests them.

Of course, the decision is not easy as there are so many courses and projects to choose from! This year we had baking, wood carving, ceramics, blacksmithing, darkroom, theater, creative writing, digital music composition, natural cosmetics, cave hikes, university visit to the UK, just to name a few.

This year, Alessandro Viale hosted Composing with a Computer  – a week-long look into the making of digital music. Together with Alesandro, students worked to conceive, design and compose their own musical projects. In our graphic lab, students in Alesandro’s project had the chance to experience working with professional recording equipment and tools, including using Ableton Live, a popular tool used by musicians, sound designers, and artists around the world.

In Silversmithing, taking place right next door, the atmosphere is completely different! In a quiet and tidy workshop, the intense concentration of all the students is palpable. Tatiana Ivensen leads the course with passion and with know-how as she supports more experienced students working on complex designs, while giving space for beginners to try their hand at metal working, shaping rings out of silver.

Unlike silversmithing, things can get dirty in the Switzerland Underground. Brian Stark, accompanied by Tom Sampson who heads up our Outdoor Program, led a group of students to explore the deep, dark, (and dirty!) depths of Switzerland. Each day Brian, Tom, and a group of students explored a new cave in the Haslital region, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Ecole. On the last day, they went further afield, visiting the Muota Valley and the karst cave system Hölloch, which happens to be the second longest cave in Europe. Thanks to Brian’s expertise - gained through years of experience as a park ranger in the Kartchner Caverns in Arizona, USA - he can guide his students through each cave and give them expert instruction on cave geology and research, as well as cave rescue.  

Now we head back to the Ecole campus (virtually!) where Ryan Küther and a group of five students* built the entire Ecole campus in the computer game, Minecraft. It was not just fun and games! The students had to use their spatial skills to map the campus, log all the details, and record appropriate proportions to create an accurate model of the Ecole. Of course, this required diligence and structure: Every day, the course started with a scrum meeting – often used in project management – in which the goals of the day are set, progress is tracked and difficulties are addressed. The students thus learn important skills for software development, such as project management and problem solving.

It's not just in the Minecraft lab that details matter: in the pottery studio, too, every step in the ceramic production process is crucial! The clay is weighed, prepared, shaped and worked, dried, glazed and finished. All of this requires a lot of patience, which our students  certainly do not lack in the workshop. They are also supported by the course instructor Ben Vinhateiro and can count on his competent help at any time.​​

Just as much diligence and patience is needed in the theater. In the Grosensaal, students are rehearsing the play "Le dormeur du Val,"  a very international production written by our students and presented in French, English and Chinese. The staging of this play is part of a French course taught by Alain Richard, who also directs the piece with the assistance of Nathalie de Montmollin. Both teachers support their students and encourage them to recognize and develop their acting talent, while improving their French along the way!

Intensive week is a memorable part of the Ecole school year as students and teachers engage with their projects with enthusiasm and commitment. This break from our normal school rhythm gives space and the time to devote to projects – be they long standing pursuits or newly discovered interests. This is the spirit of the Ecole d’Humanité, having the freedom to explore, learn, discover, and create while learning valuable skills. We

Every year we are surprised and overwhelmed by the commitment of our students during the intensive week and we are already looking forward to the next intensive week!

Interested to learn more about Intensive Week at the Ecole d’Humanité?

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