JanTerm

Building leaders through student engagement in Atlanta and the world

Thirty buses.
17,000 miles.
Three weeks.

One big idea.

The Road to JanTerm
When Westminster’s Upper School launched its JanTerm program in 2015, it wasn’t just adding a new academic term—it was rethinking what school could be. In place of traditional lectures and group projects came fieldwork, experimentation, team teaching, and bold ideas that didn’t fit neatly into any one subject. A decade later, JanTerm has become a proving ground for future forward learning.

In 2012 before the JanTerm buses ventured off campus, a question was posed to Westminster’s academic leaders:

What will academic excellence look like in the future?

That inquiry sparked Westminster’s “Learning for Life” Strategic Vision, a bold commitment to shaping servant-leaders who don’t just succeed in the world, but understand it, contribute to it, and help reimagine it. If leadership and learning are inseparable, then the city itself has to become part of the classroom. “If Westminster is built to build leaders for Atlanta and the world,” Dean of Academics and Curriculum Jim Justice explains, “then our students need to engage with that world firsthand—to see the city, meet its people, understand its systems, and recognize their own agency within it.”

JanTerm was the physical manifestation of that idea—learning that was on the move. Students explored poverty and policy, robotics and restoration, storytelling and science, food systems and foreign policy. It was school made elastic: expansive in subject, interdisciplinary in method, and intensely real.

Turning the Vision into a Reality
For all the planning and philosophy, the successful launch of that first JanTerm still came down to execution. Thirty borrowed buses. Seventeen thousand miles traveled to off-campus excursions. Thousands of meals. Faculty members turning into logistics coordinators. It was a massive and complex undertaking.

The effort required an all-hands, all-in effort—from the Boardroom to the Business Office, from faculty lounges to Facilities teams. The Physical Plant team became travel coordinators. The Business Office ran logistics like a startup. Trustees and donors didn’t just greenlight the idea—they fueled it.

“The level of support was extraordinary,” says Jim. “This wasn’t just about a new schedule. It was about a new way of thinking. That only works if the whole community leans in.”

The genesis of JanTerm’s curriculum was a creative crowdsourcing of ideas from the Upper School faculty. They pulled from their expertise, life experiences, passions and curiosities.

“JanTerm’s beginning was pure creative energy—teachers gathered in Turner Gym, surrounded by giant white Post-its, dreaming up courses that were experiential, interdisciplinary, and project-based,” Chanley reflects. “There was excitement, a bit of chaos, and a shared sense that we were building something new, something truly special.”

“The level of support was extraordinary. This wasn’t just about a new schedule. It was about a new way of thinking. That only works if the whole community leans in.”

– Jim Justice
Dean of Academics and Curriculum

Going Global

From Canada to the Czech Republic and India to Israel, students begin to see the world

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Going Global
JanTerm Global Education courses are offered each year, allowing students to pursue once-in-a-lifetime educational opportunities around the world. In 2025 students traveled to 10 countries.

“We want our students to see that leadership isn’t a title—it’s a responsibility,” says President Keith Evans “Leadership is about empathy, courage, and the willingness to act for others.”

More than a course title, leadership is both the input and output of JanTerm. The School’s intensive, three-week academic period illustrates the power of generosity to fuel innovation and enable students to try new things, discover passions, and forge a path of greater engagement and eventual servant leadership.

“When JanTerm was started in 2015, unrestricted support for The Westminster Fund allowed us to dream it and begin it,” says Emilie Henry, Westminster’s Vice President for Institutional Advancement. “We didn’t have to wait to raise money—we were able to offer the experience to students immediately.” Inspired by their children’s JanTerm experiences, Westminster donors then stepped up and established endowment funds to ensure that these life-changing opportunities would be available to students in perpetuity.

JanTerm has inspired—and the School’s community has supported—the very spaces and schedules that “Learning for Life” deems essential for twenty-first century learning. MayATL, a mini-elective taken by all middle schoolers following spring exams, also engages the curiosity and interests of Westminster students with authentic, experiential learning beyond the standard curriculum and classroom walls. With courses such as “Beltline and Bikes,” “A Bite of China,” and “Sew Fashionable,” students leverage the bounty of resources within the City of Atlanta to achieve a deeper, more hands-on understanding of a subject.

Slated for completion in 2026, The Blake Center will bring together varied disciplines under one roof in the heart of campus, supporting student creativity in all its forms. Thanks to generous supporters facilitating Westminster’s commitment to pursuing excellence across a wide range of subjects, students will be able to enjoy engineering and building spaces, light-filled art labs, a film and broadcast production studio, and many other innovative spaces. 

A Gallery of JanTerm Courses

By Jenifer Cooper

A Vision with Momentum
From the start, JanTerm has challenged students to be not just learners, but doers—individuals capable of inquiry, adaptability, and impact. It has made classrooms more permeable, disciplines more connected, and students more confident n their ability to navigate the complexities of the world beyond campus. 

Ten years in, JanTerm has served as a compass pointing forward. And, as Westminster looks ahead, the future of learning will require more flexibility, not less—more integration, more experience, more real-world relevance. 

It’s an ever-evolving model, but the foundation is solid. JanTerm’s success is owed to a convergence of vision and commitment. Faculty created it. Staff supported it. Trustees championed it. And the community embraced it. 

Rooted in the School’s mission and animated by Dr. William Pressly’s ideal of servant leadership, JanTerm continues to help guide Westminster forward, serving as a reflection of who the Westminster community is and how it aims to positively impact its students, its city, and the world. 

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