MUS offers several travel opportunities every year. Our faculty conducts for-credit seminars and travel programs that focus on their various fields of interest and expertise. Topics change annually and are approved by the Academic Council.
MUS in Europe | MUS in Guatemala | MUS Native American Tour
MUS in Europe
Visions of Man – Renaissance and Modernism
June 1 – June 19, 2010
Mr. Lin Askew and Mr. Doug Perkins
In Orson Welles’ classic film The Third Man, Harry Lime, the cynical opportunist, rationalizes his own corruption by comparing his age to the Renaissance: “Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
Examining the flowering of art and literature during two chaotic times – the Renaissance and the Modernist period – we will seek to understand the cultural and historical forces that shaped the vision of man emerging from these periods.
Tour Highlights include trips to Paris, Florence, Venice, Ferrara, Padua, Verona, and Lake Maggiore as well as La Giraudière and the Loire Valley.
For an application for this trip or for more information, e-mail
Bill Taylor,
Lin Askew, or
Doug Perkins.
General Information about MUS in Europe
Casterbridge Tours, based in England, has been organizing educational and cultural tours since 1979 and works with MUS to operate the European tours. Each program includes nine days of seminars at La Giraudière in the Loire Valley in France. There are also nine days of travel throughout Europe to sites pertinent to the study. MUS grants one-half credit for each complete program and there is no language requirement.
La Giraudière
La Giraudière is in the Loire Valley in France, 31 miles from Anger and 43 miles from the Atlantic coast in the Anjou province. It is also one hour and 25 minutes from Paris by TGV. Away from neighboring villages, the main house is on 175 wooded acres with meadows, fields, and flowers. It was built in 1846 on the grounds of a castle destroyed during the French Revolution. The estate bears the name Chateau de la Giraudière in recognition of its former distinction as a castle.
La Loire Valley
The Loire Valley area of France is home to some of the finest castles in Europe. Throughout the summer this area hosts a number of sound and light shows, theater presentations, historical reenactments, and musical concerts. La Giraudière's proximity to Paris, the Atlantic coast, and Chartres makes it possible for students to take day trips to a number of historical sites and world-famous museums. Day trips are carefully coordinated with the seminar so students will experience the art, architecture, and history they are studying first-hand.
For more information on MUS in Europe contact
Reginald Dalle or
Bill Taylor.
MUS in Guatemala
Spanish Immersion ProgramMay 30 - June 19, 2010Mr. José Hernández
MUS grants one-half credit for this program. To participate, a student must have completed Spanish II.
Begun in 2004, the Spanish summer program helps students reinforce and improve their Spanish skills. By participating in intensive language study and living with native host families, students on MUS’s Guatemala program develop their Spanish skills and learn about the Central American culture. Participants go to school five hours a day for three weeks, engaging in educational activities that include reading, writing, listening, and speaking in Spanish. The student-teacher ratio of the classes, which are taught by native Spanish speakers with university degrees, is one to one. While in Guatemala, participants visit museums, ancient Mayan ruins, and old Spanish cities in order to gain a better understanding of the influence of the Mayan and the Spanish cultures on current Guatemalan society. The students live with local host families, further improving their Spanish skills and introducing them to the country’s way of life.
For more information, e-mail
José Hernández.
MUS Native American Tour
June 19 - July 3, 2010Dr. Robert Winfrey and Coach Loyal Murphy
MUS is heading out West for the school’s second Native American tour. Starting in June 2010, MUS’s resident Native American specialist, Dr. Robert Winfrey, is leading a trip of current freshmen and sophomores to study Native American history and culture. Dr. Winfrey, Coach Loyal Murphy, and as many as 16 students will cover 4,200 miles in 15 days and take in some spectacular scenery.
There will be plenty of opportunities to stretch the legs and work off the "bus burn." We'll hike up more than 9,000 feet to see the Big Horn Medicine Wheel, a sacred Native American site. We'll tour the Little Bighorn battlefield and take walking tours of Bent's Fort and Fort Phil Kearney. We'll also visit Cahokia, the largest archeological dig in North America.
Some of the many relevant sights included in the trip are the Oklahoma History Center and the Red Earth Festival in Oklahoma City; the museum at the Washita massacre site in Cheyenne, OK; the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (consisting of five Smithsonian-grade museums) in Cody, WY; the museum and home of Chief Plenty Coups on the Crow Reservation in Montana; "The Journey" museum in Rapid City, SD; and the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron, NE.
There will be a few activities that are purely fun as well: a morning white-water rafting trip outside of Cody, an evening visit to the Cody Rodeo, a day in Yellowstone National Park, and day relaxing at Ft. Robinson, NE. Since boys need to eat well, we'll have to stop at Cattleman's Restaurant in Oklahoma City, The Fort in Denver, and Lambert's in Sikeston, MO.
For a trip application and/or information, please contact either
Dr. Robert Winfrey or
Coach Loyal Murphy.