“All in all, we want students to have a platform where they can express themselves in the language they’re learning,” Dr. Hajime Kumahata, director of the iMLC and senior lecturer in Japanese, said. “Because a lot of times language study is within the classroom and you just answer — but we’re trying to give students a platform to have fun.”

This year’s lecture turned the focus inward — toward the purpose of higher education and what it means to seek wisdom in everyday life. Dr. Jennifer Frey, pioneer of the honors program at the University of Tulsa, challenged the idea that college should be measured only by its career outcomes.

Instead of a mere modern recreation of the classic monster movie that filmmakers have put out again and again since the first movie directed by J. Searle Dawley in 1910, viewers received an artfully crafted film that will break hearts bit by bit with each passing scene. Or at least, that’s what I experienced.

In the desert, there was no air conditioner humming, no cars passing or machinery whirring. There were no signs of humanity; I was extremely uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why I think everyone should experience camping.