The Design Process: Immersives at Appleby

by Andrew Bryce & Amad Benga

It’s amazing to think that we began this process two years ago, when we attended the ISEEN Summer Institute in Colorado, specifically engaging in the Immersive educators’ cohort.  What at first was a concept to bring to the school, has now become a new program that we’re excited to pilot in just a few weeks. 

Without the help and insight of numerous colleagues and students, we would certainly not be where we are today.  Initially, we led a team of eager faculty and employees from various departments across the school who volunteered to contribute their time and energy to our Immersive program focus group.  It was through this work that we were able to clarify what exactly Immersive programming should be here at Appleby, when in our academic year we should launch the program, and how much time we might need to prepare for the launch. 

Initially, we envisioned a two-week program, and we considered running it at various times during the school year, but, with the help of our focus group, we were able to narrow the scope to a more realistic one-week program. We also identified June, post-Closing Day, as the optimal period within which to run Immersive courses. Student voices helped us prioritize their experience, and we noted their desire to commit to one thing and one thing only: with classes finished, students will be able to enjoy wholehearted focus during our Immersive program!

This past December, we had the pleasure of visiting the Hawken School, in Cleveland, Ohio, whose Intensive program, running now for over 12 years, is an innovative and leading independent school experiential education model. Through our collaboration with Hawken, we brought Cris Harris, one of Hawken’s seasoned, passionate educators and also the Dean of Experiential Education, to come and speak to and inspire our faculty.  Seeing another school’s program in action, and working closely with an external colleague, helped us in myriad ways. Whether he was clarifying aspects of the Immersive program model for our leadership or clarifying concepts and practices for our faculty, Cris has been a key contributor and mentor for us.

We are now approaching our first pilot program, which we chose to run this June, to give us ample opportunity to learn from a smaller scale rollout, before we launch and implement the Immersive program more broadly in June 2026. This launch timeline was determined through our focus group, and some eager early adopters in our faculty have come forward with passion and energy to run our pilot immersive courses.

It’s been most exciting to see the student interest (with over 100+ student applications) for the optional pilot immersive offerings this June.  We were in some ways worried that, due to the timing of this pilot, students would be disengaged and not eager to apply.  That said, the strong application numbers for the pilot immersive program bode well for the full immersive launch in June 2026 and speaks to the appetite for experiential immersive courses here at Appleby! Stay tuned for more updates as we launch our first immersive pilot and engage our faculty in immersive iterative creation this June. Here we go!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Andrew Bryce - Immersive Program Design Leader Andrew Bryce has been a part of the Appleby community since 2008.  As an English Teacher, Department Head, and Academic Director, he has enjoyed the privilege of supporting his colleagues and students as they pursue their learning goals. Inspired by experiential, passion-based education, Andrew is thrilled to be Co-Leading the Design of Appleby’s Immersive Program, alongside Amad Benga.

Amad Benga - Director of Curriculum & Research,  Immersive Program Design Leader  Amad Benga is an educator and curriculum leader at Appleby College. As Director of Curriculum and Research and co-leader of the Immersive Program alongside Andrew Bryce, he develops learning experiences that bridge classroom ideas with real-world applications. A dedicated French teacher and advocate for global citizenship, Amad supports students in building skills and confidence through hands-on, purposeful education.