SPACIOUS REFLECTION: We create an environment in which students can think deeply about questions of the good life and begin to discern their own calling: “...the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet,” in the words of Frederick Buechner. 

NATURE IMMERSION: We encourage students to connect to nature as a source of grounding, contemplation, insight and joy. Students live on campus here in the coastal woodlands of Maine. They learn to identify trees and plants, hike the preserves, and camp on the Maine Island Trail. Students slow down, sync up with nature and come to recognize their reciprocity with the earth.  

INSPIRED ACADEMICS: Our programs are saturated with ideas to live by. We create a retreat-like setting, alive with creative thinking, good books and lively discussion. Our professors guide students through reflective exercises, facilitated conversations and immersive experiences in a non-ideological, non-dogmatic way. All courses at Seguinland Institute bear college credit through our affiliation with UMaine Farmington. 

MINDFULNESS: We try to create a context in which students can cultivate the inner resources necessary for personal and community-oriented thriving. This includes daily mindfulness practice: the development of skills for calming and focusing the mind, knitting together fractured attention spans, and learning to sit with mystery. 

CREATIVE ARTS: Creativity is the lifeblood of human thriving–for individuals and communities. Too many believe that creativity is the domain of the select few, “the artists”. We create space for all students to explore and expand their innate capacities for creative expression.  

BACK TO THE LAND: Our campus is on the site of an old family homestead. In this spirit, we grow some of our own food and try “to live sanely and simply in a troubled world,” to quote Helen & Scott Nearing. We encourage students to grapple with the interconnections between the good life and the food life, as so many pressing issues of our time are food-related: climate change, health, inequality.

THE GOOD LIFE FOR ALL: Questions of the good life for one are inseparable from questions of the good life for all. We encourage our students to recognize that their own well-being is tied up with that of everyone else’s. We seek to instill in our students the skills to build strong and inclusive communities in the 21st Century.

Prof. Philip Francis, PhD

What counts as a good life? How do I go about living that good life? What will I do with my one wild and precious life? This course explores these questions by integrating readings and conversations with hands-on experiences in nature and adventures in homesteading. For example, students may read Henry David Thoreau’s In the Maine Woods while following the footsteps of his 1846 journey through Maine. Students may read Robin Wall Kimmer’s Braiding Sweetgrass while learning about sustainable sweetgrass harvesting from Wabanaki basketmakers. Students may read the Nearing’s Living the Good Life while learning the homesteading skills they imparted to generations of back to the landers. Throughout the course students are guided through a process of articulating their values & visions of the good life while reading the best of American nature writing.

Taught by Jenny O’Connell, MFA

In this course we will explore the rich creative landscape at the confluence of writing and the outdoors. We’ll combine reflective study of craft with generative writing exercises, philosophy of wintering and experience in snow and ice.

You do not need to identify as a writer to be successful in this course; you need only to come with an open mind and a set of questions that you’re hungry to explore through the prism of creative writing.

Our stories live in our bodies, and thus the time we spend outside learning new skills, expanding our winter comfort zones, and cultivating our awareness of the natural world will enhance our narratives and help to bring our writing to life. In this course, all genres are welcome, and creative experimentation is encouraged.

Most writing sessions will include creative warm-ups, discussion of craft through the lens of a mentor text (or song), extended writing time to deepen into creative flow, and an opportunity to share excerpts of your work with peers. We’ll devote time to reading and performing our work aloud, with the goal of developing the confidence to speak our words into the world with power.

Prof. Marsha Dunn, MSW

Creativity is the life blood of human thriving— both individuals and communities. And yet, our society often falls prey to the idea that creativity is the domain of a select few. This course offers space for all participants—not just those who consider themselves “artists”—to explore, discover and expand their innate capacities for creative expression. Our focus throughout will be on process, play, and reflection rather than polished output. We will seek to understand how creative processes can give rise to new ways of thinking and listening; and we will harness their power to re-imagine ourselves and re-create the world we share. Our time on-site in Maine will be structured around hands-on workshops and discussions followed by studio time. We will encourage an experimental mindset by working in multiple mediums, from nature-based installations and printmaking to visual thought and sound composition. Multi-media “journaling” will provide space to weave connections between creativity and its role in your Good Life.