Four-week interterm draws Tabor students
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
What college student wouldn't jump at the chance for an extended Christmas vacation?
Not the typical Tabor College student.
Come the first week of January, most Tabor students are back on campus and knee-deep into academic pursuits. They're back for interterm, a four-week session of intense learning that earns students credit for a class in one-fourth the normal amount of time.
Interterm classes started last Tuesday.
Bailey Estelle, a junior communications major, is one of those students. She's taken classes during interterm for her entire time at Tabor. This January, Estelle is taking earth science, which is a four-credit course.
Estelle says that the compressed time of the class — just four weeks — means that tests and papers come a lot more often. But she likes it because it allows her to fully concentrate on just one subject.
Interterm classes are also included in the normal tuition costs, Estelle said.
According to Dr. Howard Keim, vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty, nearly all Tabor students return for interterm. It's a feature of the 4-1-4 academic calendar, which is used by nearly every college in the ACCK except for Kansas Wesleyan.
In the 4-1-4 system, a college holds a four-month semester, a one-month interterm, and one more four-month spring semester. Tabor's been on this system for at least 30 years, Keim said.
Courses offered during interterm cover a wide variety of subject. A student could take anything from Intro to Unix to Personal Finance. These classes normally take place in the morning, leaving the afternoon free for students to study, Keim said.
Many students choose to take advantage of a Tabor-led trip during interterm, such as the Western Europe study tour or the Mexico mission trip, Keim said. Having those trips during interterm also allows other students at other ACCK schools such as Bethel or Hesston to be able to join these trips.
One of the biggest advantages of taking an interterm class, Keim said, is that these monthlong courses get to participate in some creative activities.
For example, the Discipleship and Evangelism class often travels to Wichita for ministry work. Classes that bring in guest speakers will get to hear that speaker for longer than a short 50-minute time period. Education majors can gain some field experience during interterm in a local school.
For the majority of students, taking one class during interterm is plenty of work, Keim said. Most don't opt for two classes.
Students like interterm because it lets them really concentrate on one subject at a time, he said.
