Isabel Rozes ‘24
May Term will not happen this year; instead, EA will hold an extra week of classes with final exams during the last week of the 2020-2021 academic year. Mr. Michael Letts, the Head of Upper School, states that offering May Term would be “logistically too hard.”
May Term, originally held during January as J-Term, was introduced during the 2013-2014 academic year for the community to come together in the spirit of learning. The event is a two-week span during which students travel internationally, domestically, or remain on campus to participate in an intensive, interdisciplinary course to gain an appreciation for a new field without an emphasis on grades.
Greece 2019 
Prague 2019
Typically, over thirty courses are offered for May Term, including fields covering financial literacy, playwriting, art and music appreciation, entrepreneurship, forensics, astronomy, and gaming. May Term requires great coordination because of its international and domestic travel, day trips, guest speakers, and other organized educational experiences.
Due to the cancellation of May Term this academic year, the dedicated time period will be used instead of attending classes and preparing and taking final exams. Mr. Letts states that May Term’s cancellation allows for flexibility in responding to COVID-19 related issues. The timelines for graduation and the prom are not expected to be impacted.
Students were disappointed, but understanding in learning that May Term is cancelled. Grace Barton ‘21 previously participated in “Escape the Western Diet” taught by Mireya Yaros. “It was such a cool course on how to eat properly and discover what is really in our food,” said Barton.
She is disappointed to hear about May Term’s cancellation because it offers a unique opportunity to learn about something completely different than most academic subjects with different students from different grades and “really lets you engage in a topic you enjoy.” Barton proposes using the cancelled May Term time period to allow students to sample existing non-core courses offered at Episcopal Academy in an enriching, fun way.
Hollis DuPont ‘21 previously participated in “Urban Farming” taught by Perry Zanki and Michael Whalen. DuPont expressed that the goal of the course was to “better understand sustainable farming and food production, and how that can be achieved in urban settings.” The course work included watching documentaries, working with different stages of food production, and taking field trips to various places, including urban farms, the Reading Terminal Market, and the Pennsylvania Farm Show.
She states that she was looking forward to May Term 2021 because “it would be a wonderful way to end my time at Episcopal Academy.” Upon learning about May Term’s cancellation, she understood how difficult it would be to hold May Term but said that, “I’m sad that I won’t be able to end my time at EA with something so unique ”
Mrs. Anna McDermott, an Upper School history teacher, has been teaching “Hollywood and History: Battles, Biographies . . . Bogus?” since May Term’s beginning. McDermott has embraced May Term’s opportunity to give students time to delve deeper into the subject matter, to get to know students in a different light, and to offer a change of pace. However, due to the sheer logistics, McDermott was not surprised and understood the cancellation of May Term 2021.