After what has felt like months of working on our Human Ecology Projects (an interdisciplinary project between P&P and science), we finally got to take a deep, relaxing breath on Wednesday evening and celebrate our hard work. During the day, each student group presented their final multimedia project to members of the HMI community as well as the broader Leadville community. Each student group had their own exhibition table inside of Stuen Hall where students, faculty, and residents of Leadville were all able to visit, watch the presentation, and ask us questions about the project. It was exciting to see some of our interviewees on campus and see their reactions to our videos—most of the participants got a few tears in their eyes (the videos were just that good!). As we spent time reflecting on our presentations, many of us realized that our greatest take-away from this project was a love for the unique town of Leadville—the miraculous landscape, the collective knowledge of the people, and the involvement and interest of the community in its own history and, more importantly, its future.
In addition to celebrating our hard work on the Human Ecology projects, we also showed off our best for HMI Spirit Week! A number of our student representatives planned a spirit week in order to help us get excited for the ten-mile Fun Run on Sunday. Student reps are the HMI form of student government. At the beginning of the semester, each cabin elects one of their cabin mates to act as a liaison between faculty and students. This group of students meets with faculty each Friday during lunch to share ideas and discuss proposals that the community of students has come up with. Over the past few weeks, students have worked together to come up with an HMI Spirit week, and this past week it debuted!
Day one of Spirit Week we were sure our clothing was mismatched or clashing—everyone took out their craziest patterns and threw them together. Day two, we toned it down a bit for Tranquil Tuesday—we just had to roll right out of bed and head to class in our pajamas. Formal Wednesday had us looking our finest for our Human Ecology presentations. But Thursday, we twisted up the norms a little and dressed up as opposite 
genders. We had some pretty impressive clothing swaps during the day—including several boys in some frilly gowns. We called day five “Family Friday” and challenged each cabin to come up with a theme. Our themes ranged from lumberjack to space girls to noble Greek men in togas to characters from the Wizard of Oz! We also laughed a lot at the faculty dressed up like skiers from the 80s. Even though it was a busy week and some of us were a bit nervous for the Fun Run, the spirit around HMI was high. We had a ton of fun participating and are looking forward to telling you about the Fun Run and our upcoming expedition!