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The Good Life Gap Semester in Maine

The Good Life Gap Semester in Maine

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Seguinland Institute: The Good Life Gap Year
4.95 · 107 reviews
Community Choice Award Winner
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Seguinland Institute: The Good Life Gap Year

 4.95 · 107 reviews
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Location
  • United States of America
Length
4 - 12 weeks
Program Tags
Arts College Credit Conservation Hands-On Learning Post-High School Wilderness Yoga Retreats
Need-based funding, 529 Plan eligibility, BIPOC funding
Health & Safety
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Program Details

Activities
Boating Canoeing Cross-Country Skiing Farming Hiking Kayaking Snowshoeing Swimming Yoga
Timeframe
Fall Spring
Housing
Guesthouse
Primary Language
English
Age Min.
17
Age Max
22

Pricing

Starting Price
13900
Price Details
Fall Semester Total Program Cost: $14,900 | Spring Semester Total Program Cost $13,900

Cost includes everything: tuition for 10-12 credits, room & board, all fees, outdoor gear, books, journals, unlimited tea and marshmallows.

Scholarships available (need-based & equity-based). Please inquire.
What's Included
Accommodation Activities Equipment Meals Park Fees Wifi
What's Not Included
Airfare Domestic Airfare Airport Transfers Travel Insurance
Jun 05, 2026
Jan 05, 2026
Wish List
25 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Three-Time Winner of Award for Best Overall Gap Year Provider by GoOverseas! Four-Time Winner of Community Choice Awards! Apply now for our Fall Semester and Spring Semester programs.

Step away from the confusions of everyday life and make yourself at home on a 60-acre homestead peninsula in the coastal woodlands of Maine. This immersive, experiential program allows you to live in intentional community with a cohort of 20 fellow students who like you are setting aside a season to explore the good life. The program engages the whole person: body, mind and soul. You’ll partake of experiences in nature, learn to forage & garden & cook, read inspired texts (one at a time), live into the big questions, practice mindfulness, connect to creativity and cultivate friendships based on the deeper things. Along the way you’ll complete 3 college courses (one at a time) for 10-12 credits with award-winning professors who embody the spirit of experiential learning.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS SUMMARY

This program offers a close-knit, supportive community where students engage deeply with nature, philosophy, and creativity.

AI-generated summary from verified community reviews Read reviews →

Video and Photos

Good Life Gap Semester in Maine
Good Life Students on Boat Trip
Good Life Student Volunteering at Scattergood Farm - Fall 2022
Seguinland Campus Aerial View
Good Life Gap Year

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Diversity & Inclusion 💙

At Seguinland Institute, we are intentional about creating positive and respectful educational opportunities within a growth-oriented environment. As a student, you can expect an inclusive learning environment that is free from discrimination or favoritism. You are entitled to freedom from physical or verbal harassment of any shape or form. We agree with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's idea of "the danger of the single story." We thus create a multi-perspective, multi-narrative approach to all discussions.
At Seguinland Institute, we are intentional about creating positive and respectful educational opportunities within a growth-oriented environment. As a student, you can expect an inclusive learning environment that is free from discrimination or favoritism. You are entitled to freedom from physical or verbal harassment of any shape or form. We agree with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's idea of "the danger of the single story." We thus create a multi-perspective, multi-narrative approach to all discussions.

Program Highlights

  • Inhabit the Coast of Maine: Live in riverside cottages, canoe the river, hike the preserves, beach comb by the open ocean, boat trip to islands, lighthouses, bald eagles & seals, multi-day trip to Acadia Nat'l Park, sunrise from Cadillac Mt.
  • Rediscover the joy of learning. Explore ideas to live by. Connect to Creativity | 3 College Courses: “THE GOOD LIFE COURSE” (Philosophy), Philip Francis PhD, “GOOD LIFE FOR ALL" (English), Seguinland Faculty, "THE CREATIVE LIFE" (ART), Marsha Dunn, MSW
  • Cultivate Mindfulness: Built-in daily practices for calming and focusing the mind and knitting together your attention span. Also, “Tree Dwellers Retreat”: stay a night in a luxury treehouse w/ wood-fired cedar hot tub. Also: Scandinavian-style sauna!
  • Good Life/Food Life: Eat good food here. Volunteer at an organic farm that gives its produce to people facing food insecurity. Work w/ expert local foragers to identify, harvest and cook a foraged feast. Feel nourished.
  • Create Intentional Community & build friendships based on deeper things. In a time of social fracture and crises of meaning and belonging, community building is crucial. Envision game nights, dance parties, bonfires, communal meals, star-gazing!

Program Reviews

4.95 Rating
based on 107 reviews
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  • 5 rating 95.33%
  • 4 rating 4.67%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 0%
  • Housing 4.8
  • Support 4.9
  • Fun 4.95
  • Value 5
  • Safety 4.95
Good for Students, Adventure travelers
Showing 105 - 107 of 107 reviews
Kaiyun
29
United States
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Learn to Reflect and Discover Beauty

Jun 15, 2020

This program is life-changing. I've participated in the Good Life course for two summers, truly some of the best experiences I've ever had. The first time I was there, I learned to reflect on the beauty of the good life. Two years later, I returned to learn what it means to shower the world with gifts of beauty in the good life.
This will be a trip where you will have the opportunity to explore the wild, the beauty, the wonder, the solitude, the silence, the self-reliance, and the simplicity in the Good Life. To read wonderful works by Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, sitting in the garden, by the sea, on a tree. Doing all that, while bonding with a beautiful group of classmates and friends. Grateful for all the life-long friends that I have met over this trip, grateful for the Good Life.

112 people found this review helpful.
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Adventures
Nature
Wild
Taylor
28
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Good Life Gap Term in Maine

May 29, 2020

Doing the Good Life Gap Term was such an amazing experience and something I will never forget. During my time in Maine, I made so many friends that I still keep in touch with today and we will forever have a bond of sharing great memories from our time in Maine. I learned so many life lessons while also learning a lot about myself. This trip not only impacted my life while I was in Maine, but it impacted my life once I came home as well. I carry all of the things that I learned with me throughout my day to day life. I came home having a new outlook on life and am forever grateful for my time spent here.

What was the most nerve-racking moment and how did you overcome it?
The most nerve-racking moment was going on this trip not knowing anyone. I had a fear of the unknown but I kept an open mind and once I got there, everyone was so kind and welcoming, we all instantly clicked. Looking back, I am grateful I didn't know anyone when I left for this trip because I came home with so many incredible new friendships that I still hold close to my heart today.
121 people found this review helpful.
Helpful
Anna
28
United States
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

The Good Life

May 28, 2020

My experience was unique because going to Maine and truly enjoying nature wasn’t something I could ever imagine myself doing until I arrived. But when I got there, it was clear that the program was going to be very memorable, and it was going to bring us very close to each other. Not only did the Francises show us many ways to appreciate nature, but they taught us how to expand our minds and how to look at the big picture when life gets tough. My time in Maine brought me clarity and peace of mind, and thinking of Maine and the Francises helps me find that clarity in my daily life at college. I have no doubt that the lessons I learned, as well as the friendships I formed, will stay with me forever. While everyone’s experience in Maine will be different, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t remember theirs as fondly as I remember mine.

What is your advice to future travelers on this program?
My advice to future travelers is to always keep an open mind, and know that you are very lucky to be there!
124 people found this review helpful.
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Questions & Answers

Alumni Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with verified alumni.

Clara Meyers

Program
The Good Life Gap Semester in Maine
Clara and friends pose for a photo on a lake dock

Alumni Spotlight: Clara

Why did you choose this program?

I chose to attend Seguinland Institute's Good Life Gap Semester program in 2020 because I did not want to begin my time in college virtually in my childhood bedroom. Seguinland promised the opposite - an opportunity to learn experientially and in community, to put down my phone, and come to know a place through immersion in the natural world.
 

What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?

Seguinland prepared us for the program by hosting full group zoom calls before we arrived on site, providing us with packing lists, and sending welcome packets in the mail. At the program, Seguinland provides food and Seguinland staff lead the charge in making community dinners. They also provide camping supplies for trips, books, art supplies, yoga equipment, and more. After the program, Seguinland made it easy to get transferable course credits. The only thing I had to organize was providing my own transportation to and from the program.
 

What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?

My advice for someone going on this program is to be prepared to open yourself up to the new and uncomfortable. Ask questions and embrace the humble state of being a beginner. Be curious about others, about ways of living and relating that you have not encountered before. It is not always easy to live so closely with others, to put down one's phone, to go canoe-camping, or even to ponder the deep questions posed by the program. However, opening oneself up to these discomforts is not only a precondition for learning, but deepens the strength of one's connections to others.
 

What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?

On an average day, participants in this program wake up in shared cabins and prepare breakfast with their housemates. Then, they walk across a bridge to a large treehouse, the Gathering Space, where they practice yoga and mindfulness. Next, participants have class, where they discuss questions like "What does it mean to live a good life?" and read foundational texts in nature writing and philosophy. They prepare their own lunch and then often have an outing or activity in the afternoon. This could be a trip to the beach; a workshop in mushroom foraging, saur-kraut making, or halloween costume creation; a trip down the river in canoes; or a drive into Portland for an artist studio visit. During the weekends, there's lots of time for rest, catching up on readings, and hanging out with friends. Some weeks, there is a longer multiple day camping trip.
 

Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?

My biggest fear was that I wouldn't be able to create the depth of relationships with my peers that I was hoping for. From the first day of the program, I knew that I would no longer have to worry about this. My fellow participants were all so eager to get to know each other, though many of us were very different and came from different backgrounds. The program facilitated these connections by encouraging us to think about how to intentionally relate with each other as we lived, learned, and explored the land together. At Seguinland, we felt a spaciousness that many of us had not experienced in high school, where we were so focused on a particular notion of academic achievement and applying for college. Now, for the first time, we felt we had permission to equally value the nourishment of our interpersonal relationships with our study. Years later, I am still in regular contact with my friends from Seguinland and consider these friendships some of my most cherished relationships.
 

What impact did your time at the Seguinland Institute have on you after the end of the program?

At the end of my time at Seguinland I had a clearer sense of the conditions I need in my life to feel happy, engaged, and empowered to contribute to my communities. In college, I continued to study topics introduced to me at Seguinland, including the philosophy of a good life, nature writing, environmentalism, and creative writing. I also continued to practice yoga and mindfulness. Because of my transformative experience of community living at Seguinland, I continued to seek out opportunities to live intentional alongside others, both in school and after graduating. I felt that Seguinland not informed the system of values that I carried with me into college, but gave me practical tools for living according to these values. As a result of Seguinland's efforts to regularly reach out to and provide additional opportunities for alums, I maintained my relationships with the staff and my peers, even returning to campus for the May term program and an alumni reunion weekend.

 

 

About Seguinland Institute: The Good Life Gap Year

Three-Time Winner of Award for Best Overall Gap Year Provider by GoOverseas (2020, 2022, 2023) and Four-Time Winner of the Community Choice Awards (2020, 2022, 2023, 2024)! We create immersive, experiential programs for gap year and college students. Located on a 60-acre homestead peninsula in the coastal woodlands of Maine, our programs combine...

  • Go Overseas Award
  • Go Overseas Award
  • Go Overseas Award
  • Go Overseas Award

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