Submitted by The Evergreen State College
If you’ve ever tried to go after a geoduck (the mascot of The Evergreen State College), you know that you do have to dig deep and fast to catch one.
It’s an apt metaphor for the kind of deep dive that Evergreen students are expected to make into interdisciplinary study and into themselves as they explore their coursework. And it’s just what drew transfer student Adam Glastris nearly 3,000 miles across the country to the thousand-acre wooded campus at the tip of Puget Sound.
The 23-year-old traveled from the suburbs of Washington D.C. over 10 days this September to begin a new chapter of his life in Olympia. “Starting to look for a college, I wanted something that was a little different than what I was used to because the structure I had been exposed to really didn’t work for me in some ways,” said Glastris.
“I had a rough time in high school for a myriad of reasons,” he added. Glastris said his education in D.C. was excellent, but highly competitive and test-driven. It sometimes lacked what Evergreen offers.
He chose Evergreen for several reasons: the non-traditional academic structure, the progressive and open culture, and the campus’s proximity to nature. “At first I was like, ‘Oh, this is so strange and different’,” said Glastris.
But as he began to understand the way the college works and what interdisciplinary learning means—thinking and learning across disciplines and subjects and sometimes inventing new ones—he began to feel surer of his decision to switch coasts.
Its location—halfway between Seattle and Portland—was also a plus since he has relatives in the Emerald City. “I have a passion for music and the arts. My favorite class in college was psychology,” said Glastris.
Glastris graduated from high school in 2015, then attended community college near D.C. His mother, who had struggled with health problems, fell ill in 2017, then suddenly passed away. It was a huge blow and precipitated a break from his studies. The experience, although painful, made him more determined to pursue his life goals.
Now, he’s now enrolled in the interdisciplinary program Madness and Creativity: The Psychological Link. The two-quarter program taught by three faculty is an interdisciplinary study of psychology, literature, the arts, imagination, and the creative impulse.
His dad, Paul Glastris, is the editor of Washington Monthly, which offers an annual ranking of colleges and universities as an alternative to U.S. News and World Report.
This year, Evergreen was listed number one for masters universities in the nation.
He said his decision to attend Evergreen had nothing to do with his father and he didn’t know anything about the ranking until after he’d applied and been accepted. “What Evergreen is about kind of spoke to me,” said Glastris.
He said he’s excited to let go of the idea of grades and to focus on learning. And he’s eager to understand life here in the other Washington. “I am a fan of the Pacific Northwest. I love the nature, the music that is coming out of here, the overall culture.”
It’s a holistic approach to learning and life that Glastris says he’s looking forward to exploring as he digs deep during the unfolding academic year.
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