Winter Term
January means Winter Term.
What your Winter Term means is up to you.
The On-Campus Experience
During Winter Term, when regular classwork and exams are cleared from the agenda, Oberlin’s campus takes on a unique and lively vibe. Students spend their weekdays engaged in project work, while evenings and weekends are filled with winter-themed festivities, performances, trips to Cleveland, and events like the annual Winter Term Ball.
Group Projects
Winter Term is an invitation to learn new things in new ways, while working in small groups with faculty and peers. Every January, students may choose to enroll in one of over fifty different faculty- and staff-led group projects.
Interdisciplinary Arts
The open-ended nature of Winter Term encourages students to push artistic boundaries in finding new forms of creative expression. A vibrant arts community on campus fosters collaborative innovation in areas from dance and book arts to composition and light-sculpture.
For Winter Term 2020, the conservatory’s TIMARA department teamed up with Cleveland-based dance company GroundWorks for a project that united composers and dancers under the guidance of professor Peter Swendsen ’99.
Research and Practice
Winter Term projects are a great way to jumpstart future research and professional projects. Whether learning a new programming language, training as a museum educator, or apprenticing as a researcher in a scientific laboratory, students can use Winter Term to roll up their sleeves in their chosen discipline.
Associate Professor Zeb Page and Hiba Shaalan '25 at the controls of the VEGA3 Scanning Electron Microscope as part of a Winter Term research project.
Community Engagement
An on-campus Winter Term project provides the perfect context for working with community partners in Oberlin and the greater Cleveland area. From podcasting local news to arts therapy and interfaith dialog, Oberlin students pursue meaningful projects to help bring about positive change while honing their collaboration and leadership skills.
During a recent Winter Term, Jackie Brick ’25 interned in the emergency room at Mercy Health – Allen Hospital.
Musical and Theater Performance
Every January Oberlin’s musicians, actors, and technicians go all out in their love for craft and performance. Whether mounting a new opera, staging a series of Lieder performances, or promoting gender inclusivity in voice ensembles, Winter Term brings music and theater alive for the entire community.
Students in the Film and Television Scoring intensive take center stage in the Joseph R. Clonick Studio with LA-based television and film composer Adam Cohen ’91.
Independent Winter Term Stories
Traveling Strings
The Kulas String Quartet, composed of four first-year Oberlin students, traveled to the embassies of Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia for enthusiastically received performances in January. The Winter Term tour was conceived shortly after connecting during orientation week just months earlier.
The Auto Drink Dispenser
Creating an auto drink dispenser was something Thomas Heffer ’21 had toyed with for a long time. It wasn't until an individual project during Oberlin's Winter Term that he was able to learn everything he would need to make it a reality.
Building Solidarity with Nepali Youth
When researching colleges in the United States, Bikalpa Baniya was drawn to Oberlin because of the opportunities he would have to engage in service projects on a local and global scale. With a Shansi In-Asia grant he was able to return to Nepal with fellow Obies to help communities impacted by the 2015 earthquake.
From the Classroom to the World
The Engaged Liberal Arts at Oberlin takes what you’re learning in your courses and puts it into practice through internships, research, study away experiences, winter term, career exploration, and beyond.
Winter Term Resources
Catalog and Calendar
Resources for Students
Resources for Faculty and Staff
Next Steps
An Oberlin education puts the liberal arts to work in achieving a life of meaning and purpose.
