Summer University of Atlantia 2025
- Jun 16, 2025
- 3 min read
Held 6/14/2025 - 6/15/2025 was one for the records! It was the 119th session of the University, which also celebrated it's 45th year. I didn't teach this time, but I had good reason.
A few months ago, I reached out to an old friend who had moved to Atlantia about 8-10 years ago and hasn't been active since. Almost nobody (who lives in Atlantia) knew he was here and most did not know he was SCA. That person is Ben Abbott, 9x Forged in Fire Champion and Judge. I'm so glad he was available and willing to come out and play again.
We had a little time to catch up and reminisce, but mostly he was teaching. I let him know I had a hard time finding an appropriate photo to use for the advertisements because many of the ones I had were from 2am at Winter Weekend, where altitude and alcohol come together in a weekend where beach dwellers visit snow for three days. I'm not publishing those, but I do have one from the daylight hours from the 2005 event, a year after he received his Laurel.
Now, 20 years and a cross country move later, he's back. And hopefully Atlantia will see more of him and his wife and son. They got to enjoy some crafts and archery while he was teaching. My husband got to take his class, Fire to Steel to Fire, and deciding blacksmithing was harder than he thought it was going to be. Gabriel was frustrated that he wasn't instantly good at it. Yrsa is already clearing room for a forge in her backyard. The rest of the students had a great time and all went home with Fire Steels they made.
I spent most of my day checking in students for Otuell's classes, running around the site taking pictures, chatting with folks, and generally having a grand time. I got to take one class, Iacobo's Ottoman Sherbert class. It was very cool to learn that history and the samples were delicious! Especially the ginger.
During lunch a short court was held. There were a few Coral Branches (AoA Arts) and a Golden Dolphin (GoA Service) awarded. The University Staff received the Award of the Golden Elephant, which is awarded to a group for excellence in service provided to the Kingdom of Atlantia. With it, members of said group also receive an Augmentation of arms, to wit: Per pale argent and azure, a fess wavy cotised counterchanged, overall an elephant passant Or.
After court Convocation began which includes the conferences of degrees and announcements from the Chancellor. I was surprised to be conferred a Doctorate of the University of Atlantia, which is awarded to those that provide above and beyond service to the University. I was not expecting this and it is so special. Mine was awarded for my work expanding our social media presence. Two other Doctorate's were also conferred, to Lady Annalena for her work on the University YouTube Channel and Master Melchior for his work as University Webminister.
Chancellor of the University, Dame Deirdre then made an announcement about next Winter University. We were contacted the Drachenwald (Europe) University team. Their Winter University is scheduled for the same days as ours for 2026. So why don't we collaborate and have a joint University? Then the wheels started turning. Dame Deirdre reached out to her contacts in Lochac to see if they would like to be involved. So this Winter University will be a collaboration. Twenty-four hours of classes, spanning MANY time zones and (hopefully) all Kingdoms. More coming and I'm already getting ideas for the social media campaign!
The day ended with the sky breaking free its bounds and awarding us driving rain for the drive home. Sunday we slept in, woke up, got ready and headed into a day of online classes. Andrei took all of the Exchequer classes. I took all scribal classes. I had learning about pigments and playing with color charts. I also learned some important differences between the types of gauche.
It was an excellent, exhausting weekend. Now we get 10 days off then start working on Fall.
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