Gulf seminar

NMH Students Travel to Gulf Coast
to Help Rebuild, Learn about Natural Disasters

February 1, 2006

GILL, MA—A group of students and teachers are helping victims of Hurricane Katrina as part of a class at Northfield Mount Hermon School called Humans on the Edge: Natural Disasters and the Human Response. The group is spending two weeks in Mississippi and Louisiana and will stay for part of the trip in an emergency shelter with evacuees. They are working with Habitat for Humanity to erect housing for people displaced by the storm and flooding.

Humans on the Edge, a yearlong class, considers how recent natural disasters have exposed problems around the world and at home. Issues of race, poverty, environmental irresponsibility and economics are being looked at through the lens of three disciplines: history, English and religious studies. The group is studying the devastating Galveston, Texas, hurricane of 1900, last year’s earthquake in India and Pakistan, as well as New Orleans before and after Katrina. Students spent the first weeks of the course creating their own community service projects in Franklin County.

The group of 14 students and three teachers left for the Gulf Coast January 22 and will return in early February.

Northfield Mount Hermon School is an independent coeducational boarding and day school in Gill, MA.

CONTACT: Kate Snyder 413-498-3357

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