ANN ARBOR—A group of 15 University of Michigan undergraduates are following in the literary footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, and earning college credit. They are enrolled in the Natural History Writer’s Project which combines environmental studies with creative writing, cooperative living and outdoor activities at the U-M Biological Station near Pellston, Mich.

The three-month program, coordinated by U-M’s Residential College, involves six days of classes a week, cooperative cooking and cleaning, strenuous physical work, no telephones, no television, and no visitors…and students love it.

” I have had the opportunity through living and studying with the same group of people, to see and discuss connections between academics and the rest of my life. There is an intensity to this which you do not find in a normal university setting,” said Brooke Scelza, a junior in natural resources from Franklin Lakes, N.J.

” We don’t watch TV and don’t worry about things like how the football team is doing, where the parties are on the weekends— all things that can take away from your learning experience. It has definitely been an experience, that’s for sure…and probably the best one of my life,” said engineering sophomore Ryan O’Connor, from Suttons Bay, Mich.

The Natural History Writer’s Project began in 1994, co- sponsored by the U-M’s Residential College and College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. It has been offered to sophomores, juniors, and seniors only two times since it began. Students must apply for a position and up to 15 students are accepted.

Catherine Badgley, the program’s founder, lecturer in the Residential College and one of the four U-M faculty members at the Biological Station, says the goal of the program is to present a unified approach to teaching natural and social sciences, writing, and literature in a community living/learning setting. In addition, its one-of-a-kind offerings and practical application attract a wide range of students with majors from English to engineering. Badgley says the focus of the semester is on understanding the relationship between people and nature, discovering links between ecology and literature, and spurring writing creativity– ” Walden,” E.O. Wilson’s ” Diversity of Life,” and Annie Dillard’s ” Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.”

The students have traveled to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising for a hiking trip, to Sugar Island in Lake Huron’s North Channel for oral histories of the people in the area, and have toured farms to talk with and work for local farmers.

Michelle Ferrarese, a senior and participant in the first Natural History Writer’s Project, says that her experience at the Biological Station was unforgettable. ” I realized the amazing potential for accomplishment by a group of people working towards a common goal. I learned how to work by consensus, make a killer apple crisp, identify 400 native plants, manage a red pine forest, spot a botfly, make a map, live like Thoreau, and blaze a trail.”