The PCC program makes every effort to cultivate a heartful and supportive learning community in which personal and academic growth are valued and embraced. The program offers a diverse array of extracurricular offerings which contribute significantly to the richness of our learning environment. These have taken several forms, and include:
The PCC Annual Retreat: Every fall, students, faculty and alumni spend a week deeply immersed in community at the annual retreat, traditionally held at Esalen Institute. Retreat activities are co-created by students and faculty and include presentations, experiential workshops, excursions in nature, and a closing night dance celebration.
Community Meetings: Held at least once a semester, community meetings provide an opportunity to reflect upon where we are both personally and academically, as individuals and as a collective. While the format for community meetings continues to evolve, the meetings help to foster a greater sense of purpose, meaning, and energy for individual and collective action.
PCC Forums: These consist of public presentations from PCC faculty, visiting scholars, and occasionally from PCC students.
PCC Podiums: Inaugurated in 2002, these events consist of presentations by PCC doctoral students who have finalized their dissertation proposals. They provide an opportunity for lively debate and for the presenter to gain valuable public speaking experience.
PCC Symposia: At least once a semester, faculty meet in the presence of the students to discuss issues arising from their ongoing research or to address matters of concern to the wider community.
Conferences: PCC has organized or sponsored a variety of conferences over the years, from Meeting the Millennium and Evolution and Complexity to Planetwork, and most recently, The Cosmological Imagination and Wisdom and Action. Student participation at these conferences - whether as presenters, organizers, or attendees - has been an invaluable element of the PCC learning environment.
Semester Opening Party: Each semester begins with a party for students, faculty, alumni, and friends.
PCC Unplugged: In recognition of the importance of creative expression, PCC Unplugged provides students, faculty, and alumni the opportunity to share song, performance, poetry, spoken word, and more.
Emergent Student Groups and Organizations: In 2003, PCC students formed 6X, a group designed to address the current mass extinction crisis. 6X evolved into Species Alliance, a non-profit organization and documentary film project.
Graduation Ritual: An important element in the framing of students' experience of our program is the graduation ritual, where each Master or Doctor is given a PCC "Philosopher's Stone" by their advisor/mentor, and where the graduate is given space to share something to mark the successful completion of their journey.
