J-Term

What J-Term Is

Three Ways to Spend Two Weeks

January Term is an annual two-week experience that follows Christmas break. It is not a vacation and it is not extra credit. It is a different kind of education, built on three options: classes, internships, and trips.

J-Term is designed to build a long-term love of learning by helping students make contact with the intrinsic value of knowledge. Most schooling asks what a subject is good for. J-Term asks what makes it worth knowing at all. That shift is the whole point.

Through specialized interdisciplinary classes, students encounter the beautiful interconnectedness of ideas, facts, and theories. For many, J-Term becomes the place where they discover a passion that awakens other areas of scholarship and life.

The Three Options

Classes. Internships. Trips.

Offerings change year to year. The three paths do not. Every student takes part in J-Term, and what is open to them grows as they move through Covenant.

Option One

Classes

Specialized interdisciplinary courses built for two weeks of focused study. Students follow a subject further than a semester allows, and often find a passion they did not know they had.

Open to All Students

Option Two

Internships

Two weeks inside a real vocational setting. Students explore a field they may be called to and represent Covenant in the larger community, well before college decisions arrive.

Open to Juniors and Seniors

Option Three

Trips

Domestic and international travel created and led by Covenant faculty, staff, and members of our community. Students encounter places, cultures, and history no classroom can reproduce.

Open to Juniors and Seniors

Option One J-Term Classes

The Spirit of Discovery

J-Term exists at Covenant to answer the utilitarian view of education that dampens the spirit of discovery. A class here is not measured by what it prepares a student to do next. It is worth the two weeks because the subject itself is worth knowing.

Through specialized interdisciplinary classes, students encounter the beautiful interconnectedness of ideas, facts, and theories. It is a way for students to discover the passions that awaken their vision for service and leadership.

Courses are built fresh by our faculty and change from year to year.

View Courses

A Covenant student on a J-Term internship

Option Two J-Term Internships

Where Calling Gets Tested

J-Term is a chance for students to experience different vocational settings and to explore areas where they may feel called, before they make decisions about colleges and training. Two weeks in a real workplace teaches a student something a course catalog cannot.

Students are also given the chance to represent Covenant Christian High School in the larger community. Our desire is that each of our upperclassmen takes full advantage of this opportunity.

Students are encouraged to dream big and to pursue internships anywhere in the country.

Option Three J-Term Trips

The World Is the Classroom

Juniors and seniors have the opportunity to travel either domestically or internationally. These learning experiences are not replicable in a traditional classroom.

J-Term trips are conceptualized, created, and offered by our faculty, staff, and other members of our community. A teacher who loves Steinbeck takes students to Steinbeck country. A teacher who loves the English literary greats takes them to London. That is why the trips carry the weight they do.

Past Domestic Destinations

AtlantaPassion Conference with follow-up class
CaliforniaReading Steinbeck in Steinbeck country
ChicagoArt, theatre, history, and culture
Chicago, Grand Canyon, Los Angeles"Planes, Trains, and Vans" West Coast college tour
GatlinburgSpiritual discoveries and disaster relief in the Smokies
Grand Canyon, Zion, and BryceSpiritual depth in the Grand Canyon
HoustonHurricane Harvey relief and Texas history
MontanaTackling moral relativism in Big Sky Country

Past International Destinations

East AfricaTanzania and Kenya
BrazilSoccer mission through the Jesus Project
Costa RicaPersonal fitness and language immersion (Quepos and Manuel Antonio)
CubaSports outreach partnership with SportQuest
EnglandSketching (London, Oxford, Bath)
EnglandMythology and history: a study of English literary greats (London)
England and France"A Tale of Two Cities" tour (London and Paris)
England and France"A Journey through the Wardrobe" (London, Oxford, Canterbury, Paris)
IsraelBible history exploration
MexicoMedical, outreach, and construction missions (Tijuana and Piedras Negras)
MexicoLincoln School exchange program (Guadalajara)
NicaraguaMission and cultural immersion with Covenant alumni families (Leon)
PeruInca history and culture (Cuzco and Machu Picchu)
PortugalDuas Semanas em Portugal (Lisbon, Sintra, Serra, Mafra)
SpainAdventures in Iberia (Madrid, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Pamplona, Barcelona)
SpainEuropa International School three-week exchange (Seville)
SpainLanguage and culture immersion (Seville)
Spain"The Last Great Country Left" (Pamplona, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Madrid)
SpainSpanish history tour (Madrid, Toledo, San Lorenzo, Segovia, Barcelona, Montserrat)

Common Questions

About J-Term

Is J-Term required?

Yes. Every Covenant student takes part in J-Term every year. It is a core part of a Covenant education, not an optional elective.

Can a freshman go on a trip?

Trips are open to juniors and seniors, and internships are open to upperclassmen. Younger students take J-Term classes, and the other two paths open up as they move through Covenant.

Who creates the trips?

Our faculty, staff, and other members of the Covenant community conceptualize, create, and lead them. Trips grow out of what our teachers love and know, which is what makes them worth taking.

Where can a student intern?

Anywhere in the country. Students are encouraged to dream big and pursue a setting that fits where they believe they may be called.