Denver Public Schools hosts "Senior Seminar" reunion 53 years later
Denver Public Schools held a reunion at the City Park Pavilion Saturday 53 years after the "Senior Seminar" program was implemented at East High School.
The reunion was open to teachers, counselors, staff and students who participated in the Senior Seminar program in the 70s and 80s, which introduced a diverse group of students to the outdoors.
As a result of the court-ordered school bussing for racial integration in the 60s and 70s, a group of teachers and counselors at East High School in Denver began a program as an educational experiment. During this experiment, they chose leaders and students of black, white, Latino, working, middle and upper class to participate in Outward Bound Wilderness Courses. Over the years, the outdoor activities proved to be successful for students and leaders in breaking down racial barriers and changing the social atmosphere at East High.
As this group comprised students, teachers and counselors grew, Craig Spillman and his colleagues would collaborate with East High Principal Robert Colwell, a philanthropist, Charles Kettering II and Joe Nold, the director of Colorado Outward Bound at the time, to create a structured, semester-long program that became known as "Senior Seminar" in 1970.
The Senior Seminar gave students and leaders cultural experiences to learn about the world around them. It began with the students and teachers riding in DPS school buses traveling up to 1,100 miles to Mexico's Sea of Cortez for a three-week Outward Bound Wilderness course. The rest of the semester would be divided into time blocks of various 3-week modules for outside-the-classroom learning experiences. Over the years, these modules would include live-in experiences with families on the Navajo Reservation, migrant worker families in Texas and rural farm families in Kansas.
At a time when many school districts across the country were facing political and social turmoil due to bussing, the success of this program gained national visibility through a feature story in the May 29, 1970 issue of LIFE magazine.
Due to the program's success at East High School it would later expand to Manuel and by 1981 become a DPS district-wide program. The program would end in 1987.
A few years after the program at east high, senior seminar expanded to manual in 1977 (with the east-manual complex) and then eventually became a dps district-wide program based at the career education center in 1981. The last senior seminar program ended in 1987.
Saturday afternoon at the Pavilion at City Park felt like nostalgia for many as alumni from several DPS schools gathered.
Carlton Brown, class of 1978 from East High School was ecstatic to see old classmates.
"To see people that I haven't seen in years, that almost makes me want to cry," said Brown.
Happy Haynes, of the class of 1971, shared a similar sentiment.
"So over the moon to see some of the people I haven't seen since we graduated over 50 years ago," said Haynes.
They credit the Senior Seminar program for opening their eyes to the world and giving them a different sense of the world around them through experiences, despite the color of their skin or social class.
"We learned together and we learned more than we could imagine, more than we can learn in the classroom by being out in the world," said Haynes.
Now nearly 50 years later a study by the Latino Education Coalition says more DPS schools have become re-segregated since court-ordered bussing ended in 1995.
James Ainsworth, of the East High Class of 1977, believes this to be ironic.
"We are hoping the impact of this reunion inspires ideas to try to bring people back together again," said Ainsworth.
Alumni say a possible solution would be a similar program to the Senior Seminar.
"This is where we learned a lot of our diversity, we got to experience a lot of different cultures, people and how they think so we really need to bring that back," said Carlton.
Through this program, students and leaders learned together about the world and community around them.
"The experience we had at Senior Seminar should be an experience every student has, learning by doing," said Haynes.
We reached out to DPS for comment on whether they will bring a similar program back but have not yet heard back.
