Experiential learning, more colloquially defined as learning by doing, encompasses anything from research to domestic study abroad programs. These experiential learning opportunities can force students to wrestle with spheres of privilege and power, and enrich professional goals. Hamilton offers many different types of experiential learning programs on and off campus that are crucial to some students’ education, but not without flaws.
Amy James, the Director of the Community Outreach, described what makes experiential learning unique. Sitting in a classroom and reading did not suit her active learning style. Once she started taking theater classes, some of the things she had been reading became very real to her. James remarked, “Are you reading Death of a Salesman, or are you designing and building a set for Death of a Salesman? I guarantee you, if I design and build a set, I’ll never forget the play because I had my hands on it.”
James also detailed how experiential learning helps cement what people are learning inside the Hamilton classroom. She said, “If you’re coming from a position where you’re [at Hamilton], and you’re just talking in the abstract about people running out of food stamps, you don’t know what that really means until you’re at Hope House [a soup kitchen in Utica] and it’s the end of the month, and the place is jammed.” Experiential learning allows students to see the systemic injustices they may be studying in a classroom materialize in front of their eyes.
Casey Weisberg ’26 participated in the Justice Lab focused on immigration and asylum, where she described the significance of learning outside the classroom. She said, “We went on field trips to the refugee center and the Oneida Cultural Center. We talked to people in the Utica government and spoke to refugees about their experiences.”
Weisberg reflected, “I remember once we spoke to some refugees from South Sudan. One of them was taken away from their parents very young and forced to be a part of the army when he was still a kid. Hearing it from the people who actually experienced it was much more meaningful than reading about in a classroom,” she remarked. “It’s not just something you study in a classroom. It’s people’s lives.”
Mary Hurner ’24, the President of AXB, a COOP Senior Fellow, and a two-time Justice Lab participant, also described how powerful experiential learning can be. She said, “What interests me about public policy is these issues we’re seeing in the world and what potential solutions can be used to address [them] in the most efficient and effective way. Within that, you inherently need to be exposed to these issues in a real world setting.”
Hurner said, “If you’re just talking about that in the classroom, in the abstract form, it’s like, okay, we’re talking about this, but what does that actually look like? In policy work, you need to have an understanding of the issues. I feel like experiential learning is the only way to do that.”
Maddie Carrera, Hamilton’s First Director of Experiential Learning, added, “while you are not necessarily going through these hunger issues or poverty issues or navigating a system that is not set up for you to succeed, you have access to and can work through those scenarios in ways a classroom scenario or article cannot.”
Many students noted that experiential learning was important in conceptualizing their own privilege at an institution like Hamilton. Sae Gleba ’24, who is currently in the experiential learning class American Freedom and Religious Thought, talked about Hamilton’s privilege, coining it a “bubble,” but one that experiential learning helps pop.
She said, “I know everyone says Hamilton is such a bubble, but it literally is. I think that seeing outside of that bubble is incredibly important.” Weisberg echoed these sentiments and explained, “I think what made the Justice Lab special was really connecting with the community outside of our little Hamilton bubble. The people that surround us in Clinton and Utica make this area what it is.”
“If you’re just talking about [policy] in the classroom, in the abstract form, it’s like, okay, we’re talking about this, but what does that actually look like? In policy work, you need to have an understanding of the issues. I feel like experiential learning is the only way to do that.” – Mary Hurner ’24
Hurner also focuses on popping the Hamilton “bubble” through AXB trips in addition to coursework. She said, “I don’t know if I’d ever go to Greensboro, [North Carolina] if I weren’t on an AXB trip. We got to go to the Civil Rights Museum and learn so much about the refugee community there. It’s very similar, but also differs in certain ways from the Utica system of support for refugees.” She described, “It also gives a different perception of the South. They’re really welcoming to refugees. I feel like we think we know America and the reality is there’s so much more to learn about America.”
Hurner said, “Coming from this college on a hill, we’re inherently separate. But, being aware of your place and interacting genuinely with people and asking questions about their work is the most important thing.” She said, “There’s so much that we can learn if we just stay intentional and ask questions. There’s a way to build connection and community.”
However, Carrera expressed how Hamilton students are not always emotionally and mentally prepared for some experiential learning opportunities. “You are being put in different spaces and being asked to think in different ways.” She described how this can be shocking for some students, “you are being shown that your expectations of the world are not actually accurate. That can be really hard to face especially if everything up until this point has been really cookie-cutter.”
This barrier could potentially be mitigated through training components, which some of Hamilton’s experiential learning opportunities lack. Abby Foran ’26 volunteers at Thea Bowman, a nonprofit daycare and pre-school in Utica. She described, “[HAVOC} just asked people that were interested [in volunteering], and they assumed that people going to school have good manners… and provide help with homework and interact with kids. They did not do any sort of civic preparatory training or material, [we] just kind of showed up.”
When asked if she felt well equipped to go into a school like Thea Bowman, she remarked: “Well-equipped is a tough term to use because of the idea of not being specifically trained to work in an environment like this. I grew up in a very different environment than these kids.” She remarked that, “I cannot say that I am well-equipped, but we’re not expected to really do anything revolutionary. Just help in any way we can. Give our time to something that’s hopefully creating some good and making lives easier for many people.”
Carrera detailed the need to take time to reflect before entering an organization to volunteer. She said it is important to reflect on “What do you expect? Why do you expect to see those things or to have these encounters? Did your reality meet your expectations? Why or why not? What can you take to that in going through both in connectivity to your course, but also for you as a person? Where is your place, and how are you connected there too?”
Although experiential learning is important, some of the programs, most notably domestic study abroad, provide a lack of support to their students. Hannah Jablons ’24, who participated in the Hamilton in New York program in Spring of 2023, described their difficulty obtaining internships. They said, “You have to get these internships completely on your own. [Hamilton College personnel] tell you that the Career Center helps, but they don’t.”
Jablons detailed how it even got to the point where people arrived in NYC without an internship: “Some people even came into the program without internships, and then hopped on to other people’s internships. It was really, really, really frustrating.”
Similarly, Hamilton did not support Breeze Petty ’24 in obtaining an internship for their study abroad semester in DC. They said, “The Washington program is like, we’ll make sure you get an internship, right? Every Hamilton student has gotten an internship.”
However, in reality Petty said, “So then, I’ve applied to probably like 20 internships. I go to the professor that’s going to DC with us while we’re still here at Hamilton [but] I didn’t get an internship interview until I was literally headed to the airport to move to DC. I did my interview in the airport and then when I landed, I got the job offer. And the only place I could get a job offer was my home[state] Republican senator.”
Despite these struggles in obtaining internships, some Hamilton students had immersive internships. Jablons worked as an investigative intern for the New York County Defender Services. They noted their internship was particularly helpful as they were the only spring intern from January to May. As a result, they could really receive special attention as well as become more invested in their organization’s mission.
“Sometimes, there was a lot for me to do and then sometimes there was nothing for me to do and I could go to court or wander over to the social work department and ask them questions or have lunch with the CEO because he was in the break room and I got an early lunch,” Jablons described.
Petty’s internship was similarly immersive. They described, “When Russia invaded Ukraine, I had been working really close to the ledge assistant who was doing international relations. The two of us just tried to go to every single one of the briefings they had about Russia Ukraine and try to piece it together for the senator. So I went to a bunch of super cool classified and declassified briefings about it.”
That being said, Petty’s but their roommate did not have a very rewarding internship experience. Petty said, “his job was literally to answer the phone and get coffee. You have to learn how the senator or the congressman likes their coffee. And if you get the order wrong, you’re probably going to get fired. ” They continued,“I had way more responsibility than he did, which is something I would not have gotten if I was working for a Democrat. I was invited to meetings I most certainly should not have been invited to, like interviewing FEC candidates.”
Although Petty’s internship was immersive, they struggled working for a Senator who they did not share political ideology with. They said, “My intern coordinator boss sent me to this secret Republican meeting about Roe v. Wade off campus at this unmarked building where Republicans hang out. I was taking notes about how this is a huge Republican victory and…I had this realization that I was on the bad side of history in this room. When I got back from that meeting, I handed my notes in along with my letter of resignation.”
Additionally, the classroom component of these domestic study abroad programs can offer unique learning experiences for students. Jablons said, “A lot of our class meetings we’d meet and then [Professor Isserman] would just bring in a friend that he knew and did activism with. And that person would be famous activist Bettina Aptheker and the authors of the books we were reading like Joshua Freeman.”
However, during Petty’s DC program, they described being overwhelmed by their work, instead of immersed in rewarding classes. They said that instead of having a check-in class as expected, “The professor told us to do research about inequality at different levels on top of the fact that we were all working 40 hours a week and trying to do homework for her other class.”
Many of the experiential learning programs also struggle to address access to necessary resources. Jablons said, “You cannot access mental health resources and also can’t access a lot of the other resources that Hamilton offers.
The New York City program tries to supplement this, not mental health wise, but academically, they give access to the New York Public Library.” Hamilton’s provision of academic support, but not mental health support, raises questions of whether or not the institution is prioritizing emotional support, especially given the taxing nature of many experiential learning programs. Petty expanded on this lack of access, describing how “You get told before you go on these sort of programs that the Counseling Center is not available to you, which is really hard especially if you are seeing a provider connected to Hamilton College.”
Aside from these many difficulties in domestic abroad programs, Hamilton’s experiential learning did provide opportunities for students to foster personal growth. Jablons said, “I became comfortable in the city. I know people who were on my program who weren’t from the city or had never stepped foot in the subway before.”
Carrera described how faculty praise the NYC and DC programs for their high-equality education and living-learning community, which often differs from what students get out of the programs. She said, “All of our students talk about how awesome it was to learn…that [they] can actually take care of [themselves] in a big city, to learn that [they] have recognized that this city is not what [they] thought it was going to be, how amazing it is that [they] test drove what I wanted to do for my career.” She said, many students realize, “‘I can do this,’ which is really fulfilling.”
Lastly, Jablons and Hurner articulated how their experiential learning opportunities have impacted their lives, including their plans for after graduation. Jablons said, “My thesis topic is about the history of New York City, which I probably wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t done this program. I’m also relying 85% of my interview material on the internship I did through the New York City program. It’s the only tangible experience I have in my field.”
Similarly, Hurner’s Justice Lab experiences exposed her to how difficult it is to navigate complex bureaucratic systems and really create change in those systems. She said, “My experiential learning also gave me hope that there are people at all levels, especially at the local level, who are advocating for change in their own communities. All those experiences have led me to be more interested in local issues, which is where I’m trying to focus my work as I go forward.”
James believes that there is beauty and growth in experiential learning. She said, “[Experiential learning] gives you a really realistic view of what is needed, what is possible, what’s broken. But, I also hope that you find out what’s beautiful about that community. They really care for each other. There’s a place for people to go if you have nowhere to go.”