Björklunden weekends provide a distinctive and highly memorable integrative experience. Each weekend during the academic year groups from Lawrence gather to explore and reflect upon ideas, artistic expressions and community issues. Topics are wide ranging and students have the opportunity for intensive inquiry and discussion with faculty members and among themselves in an informal, intimate setting.
In creating and developing these student weekends at Björklunden, Lawrence seeks to provide a different kind of educational experience, one in which participants are encouraged to leave old assumptions behind and the barriers of class, rank and status are removed in order for students and faculty to learn meaningfully from each other. As former president Richard Warch observed, a fundamental purpose of the Björklunden student weekends is "to confront ourselves and others on a personal scale, one that is and will be in sharp contrast to the anonymity of mass culture."
The intensive experience at Björklunden can be cleansing and transforming. Lawrence invites each student to come openly to Björklunden and be changed. That is a powerful expectation, but those who have been to a weekend seminar at Björklunden will provide testimony of that fulfillment. As a place of refuge and peace, where spiritual values and aesthetic sensibilities can be explored, Björklunden provides a unique setting for personal growth, embracing the liberal education ideal of connecting thought and reflection.
