Enroll at St. Lawrence, get back to nature, says Hanzi Deschermeier ’09.  While some would find living off the grid, in the woods, for an entire semester very challenging, Hanzi found the Adirondack Semester to be easier than everyday living.  “It was a much more simplistic way of life,” he says.  “We would go to bed early and wake up early; the food was local and organic.” 

Hanzi, a graduate of the Lowell Whiteman School from Steamboat Springs, CO, is a history major. He plans an outdoor studies minor, having studied outdoor philosophy, the history of land use in the Adirondacks, the natural history and ecology of the Adirondacks, and creative writing on the Adirondack Semester. “After living in such a tight-knit community, you tend to have more of a consciousness of your actions. That was an awareness that a lot of us took away from the Adirondack Semester,” he says.

Hanzi’s studies have taken him to Montana on a travel grant from St. Lawrence to conduct research for a fly-fishing manual that he wrote for use in college outdoor programs nationwide.  As a guide for St. Lawrence’s Outdoor Program and a member of the Outdoor Council, he launched a new fly-fishing program on campus.  He’s also a member of the Laurentian Singers, whose tours have taken him to Eastern Europe, California and Puerto Rico.