BETHEL – Erin Murphy, George Neptune, Amy Gaidis and Whitney Stowell all share something in common.

Aside from being high school students from Maine at Gould Academy, all four and about 170 others are completing a week of intensive experiential education outside the classroom.

Gould calls the diverse array of life experiences its Four Point Program.

School spokesman John Nesbitt said the innovative program was developed in 1985 to:

• Build class unity through shared experience.

• Provide opportunity for insight into one’s self and to gain confidence into one’s own ability.

• Allow faculty insight of students outside the academic environment.

• Allow students insight of faculty adults beyond the traditional experience.

• Engage students and faculty to join together to be a part of something larger than themselves.

This year’s 20th annual program sent 31 freshmen to Germany, gave 39 sophomores the opportunity to experience new art forms while working with Maine artists, and 41 juniors got to experience winter mountaineering in the White Mountains.

Fifty-four seniors and five post-graduate students were given the opportunity to travel across the world to pursue a creative, vocational or academic interest beyond the traditional school setting.

Stowell, a senior from Weld, opted to intern with Volkl Ski Co. in Concord, N.H.

Among Stowell’s classmates’ projects are job shadowing with a neurologist in Rhode Island, or internships in acupuncture in Korea, with a New York City architectural firm, or a guitar-building workshop in Vermont.

The seniors, Nesbitt said, must submit journals and essays about their experiences as part of their spring trimester English grade.

Juniors, like Gaidis of Bryant Pond, are learning leadership and interpersonal skills by hiking, snowshoeing and camping in the nearby White Mountains for eight days.

Their trip also includes a 24-hour solo experience, during which they separate from the group, but are monitored by faculty, Nesbitt said.

“Some of them carry lessons learned from that trip into their lives,” he added.

Sophomores, like Neptune of Princeton, participated in art workshops and community service projects to learn a sense of place and to break out of pre-conceived notions about art, said Gould art instructor Lauren Head.

This year’s Four Point Artists in Residence included Richard Lee of Brunswick: paper making and bookmaking; Molly Parker (Neptune’s grandmother): weaving and basket making; Nantz Comyns, “The Moose Lady” of Scarborough: creative sculpture; Louise Bourne of Sedgwick: painting and collage; and Duncan Slade and Gail Frasse of Edgecomb: dye sublimation.

Community service projects included working with students at local primary schools, building adaptive toys for children with learning differences, holding a luncheon for senior citizens, and helping a local resident prepare his maple sugaring lines for the upcoming season, Nesbitt said.

The entire freshmen class, including Murphy, and faculty chaperones, are staying in the homes of host families in Droyssig, Germany.

“They learn from the trip that they are part of something that’s bigger than themselves,” Nesbitt added.

The visit to Germany is part of an ongoing cultural exchange between Gould Academy and the Jugenddorf-Christophorus School in Droyssig.

Nesbitt said that the Four Points Program is made possible through fund-raising efforts at Gould’s annual Fall Parents’ Weekend Auction.

“And,” he added, “by the belief of faculty and administration that such experiential learning opportunities are not merely accessories to education, but rather vital components.”

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