Families: Summer Campus

It's never too late--or too early--to reap the advantages of a college education. During the summer, some colleges sponsor a rich array of learning opportunities, both on and off campus, for adults and youngsters. A sampling:

Spotting the Wild Giraffe

Pop quiz! The highest mountain in Africa is ____. Are elephant herds led by a male, a female or a breeding pair? The patterns on a giraffe's neck, like human fingerprints, are unique to each individual--true or false? These questions may be on the test Buddy Derrick, mayor of Lexington, Va., will give his grandsons John, 11, and Richard, 9, in preparation for going on WASHINGTON & LEE UNIVERSITY'S 13-day Family Adventure in Tanzania in August. Derrick insists that they study up for the trip because "half the joy of anything is anticipation--the other half is recalling it."

Derrick's pleasure in recalling his own trip to East Africa with W & L two years ago inspired him to sign on with his grandsons this year, the first time the university has opened up the trip to youngsters. Escorted by science professor Steven Desjardins, the group will safari into the great parks of Tanzania to see animals most Americans have viewed only in captivity or as cartoons. Children have an affinity for other children, so the itinerary also includes young humans--the travelers spend a day at a school in Arusha and share a meal of porridge and vegetables with Tanzanian students.

The price--$5,395 for adults, $3,595 for children (airfare included; for more information, call 540-463-8723)--ain't cheap, but Buddy Derrick feels the trip is worth it. "I wanted to instill in my grandkids a sense of living life to its fullest," he says, "and to me, going on an African safari is the absolute ultimate." Those grandkids will have to earn the privilege, however, by passing Derrick's test. Pssst, John and Richard, here are the answers: Kilimanjaro; a female; true.

Western Civilizations

Beautiful as Yellowstone National Park is, it's hard to imagine how Native Americans and early settlers ever survived in the rugged terrain around it. That's the mystery visitors are invited to solve during Rhodes Goes West, a week-long adventure held at the Lucius Burch Center for Western Tradition in Dubois, Wyo., the first in which the center and RHODES COLLEGE, in Memphis, Tenn., have been co-hosts.

Rhodes geologist Carol Ekstrom will trace 2.7 billion years of geological history to show how that dramatic landscape was formed. Her husband, anthropologist Peter Ekstrom, will discuss the interplay between the environment and the culture of the folks who put down roots there. The Dubois area was once the largest railroad-tie-producing region in the U.S., and Burch Center director Sharon Kahin will take visitors to camps once inhabited by Bunyanesque Scandinavian immigrants who hand-hewed ties with razor-sharp precision. The area is also the home of the Mountain Shoshoni, and archaeologist Larry Loendorf will lead hikes to the wooden structures they built to trap the bighorn sheep that were the staple of their diet, and to the site of giant petroglyphs used in their religious rites.