At NMH Perennial College, we believe that education should be a lifelong process and that learning alongside a group of peers can be an empowering experience.
Join us June 19 to 27, 2026, for our two-course program, American Transcendentalism, with Dr. Samantha Harvey, and The American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence: 250 Years Later, with Dr. David Adler.
In this seven-day program, you’ll spend your mornings in two classes, one for each course. Some afternoons, we’ll leave campus for outings that will bring what we’ve discussed in the classroom to life. One day, we’ll go to Concord Massachusetts, site of the beginning of the Revolutionary War, to visit the houses of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau. On our second outing, we’ll explore Fruitlands, a Transcendentalist utopian community in Harvard, Massachusetts, and site of the Fruitlands Art Museum.
Other days, we’ll enjoy outings and activities on and near campus, including a wine-tasting, movie night, ice cream stands and brewery visits, nature walks, and other local delights.
At NMH Perennial College, you’ll consider the great questions from the vantage point of maturity — as William Wordsworth described it, “in years that bring the philosophic mind” — in a group of like-minded learners eager to bring their life experiences and wisdom into the classroom again.
NMH Perennial College 2026 Program Leaders
Dr. Samantha C. Harvey
Boise State University
Dr. Harvey is the founder and creative director of Perennial College at NMH. A graduate of Harvard College and Cambridge University, she has published books and articles on 19th-century British poetry and prose, transatlantic Romanticism, and the environmental humanities. In 2012, she founded a public lecture series, “The Idea of Nature” which brings three internationally known lecturers to Boise State every spring.
Dr. David Adler
An expert on the U.S. Constitution, presidential power, and the Bill of Rights, Dr. Adler has lectured nationally and internationally has and taught at all three of Idaho’s universities. His scholarly writings have been quoted by the U.S. Supreme Court and by both Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress. Adler is the author of six books and 100 scholarly articles in the leading journals in his field and has delivered more than 900 public lectures. He writes a weekly column on the Constitution that runs in more than 70 newspapers.