Search for Summer 2026 Term Courses

During summer terms, students have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities such as hiking, rafting, rock climbing, and fly-fishing. Students are able to apply the five components of health-related fitness to all of the activities that they pursue. Special activity fee: $800 in summer to cover all equipment and sports activities. (SMU-in-Taos)

*Counts for Honors Credit in Summer 2026* This course examines Native American, Spanish, and Anglo arts and cultures of the American Southwest between 100 CE and the 21st century. It considers the effects of ethnicity, gender, and community identity on regional art traditions and places artworks within their material, religious, political, and economic contexts. Astronomical alignments, water, earth and sky, spirits and saints, the living and their ancestors; these are among the themes in the art of the region. The course is designed for SMU Taos. Many class days include field trips or interactive projects. Films, readings, and PowerPoint slide talks set the stage for visits to artists' studios, archaeological sites, pueblos, churches, and museums. Hands-on art projects, collaborative projects, and engagement with the community help students understand the socio-political, religious, technical, and aesthetic qualities of the art and architecture we study in this class.

*Counts for Honors Credit in Summer 2026* This introductory biology course for non-majors focuses on aquatic ecosystems of the American Southwest, exploring how life adapts to challenges like drought, seasonal change, and wildfire. The Taos campus is the ideal setting because students can move directly from class discussions into the field to collect data, observe biodiversity, and connect theory to real-world examples. Our main reading, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, blends ecology with history, literature, and ethics. Leopold served as Forest Supervisor of Carson National Forest in the early 1900s, and many essays reflect his time in New Mexico, helping students link science to the landscape around them. By combining fieldwork, place-based reading, and small-group learning, the course uses the unique setting of Taos to create an immersive and memorable experience.

Psychology and the Challenges of Life course is an upper level course that aims to discuss how life trajectories and outcomes are shaped by both our history and experiences (including life challenges and cultural differences) and our differences in personality. It tackles individual growth and life challenges through a scientific lens incorporating findings and theories from multiple disciplines within psychology (i.e., developmental, cognitive, personality, and clinical). These discussions have large implications for student’s own lives and other studies, but seeing some challenges play out with hands-on activities at SMU Taos reinforces these lessons in ways that a traditional lecture course could not.

This drawing course is intended to place students in a mode of deep observation. With Taos as the backdrop for inspiration, students will be given an opportunity to learn fundamental drawing skills while exploring the textures of the New Mexican landscape. While a typical introductory drawing course tends to rely on the objects brought into the studio, the Taos course is designed to maximize experiential learning outside the studio. This course will be about exploring the landscape. From a small pine cone to a forest of trees my intention is to give students an opportunity to really see what Taos looks and feels like. Interdisciplinary themes could be museum studies, creative writing (students will be asked to keep a sketchbook/journal) and environmental studies.

This nationally recognized award-winning course is experientially based. Most projects are developed in collaboration while in class. Regardless of whether you want to be an entrepreneur or not, you will professionally benefit from this class. Entrepreneurial skills make you more valuable as an employee and will also enable you to found an new organization—whether for-profit, nonprofit, social, corporate, arts, or creative in nature. Topics include branding, creativity as the keystone of entrepreneurship, crowdfunding, event-based fundraising, leveraging inherent assets, website creation, pitching angel investors and venture capitalists, acting entrepreneurially within existing organizations, navigating startup processes, and other critical entrepreneurship topics.

Examine contemporary and real-life challenges in business ethics & corporate social responsibility in the context of New Mexico and the legacy of colonialism that has impacted Native Americans. Build and hone your ability to understand, adapt to, and evaluate the current challenges in business ethics and CSR. Grow in your personal awareness of your own ethics and will develop an understanding of how to create real social impact through the variety of tools that will be at your disposal as you enter the business world. Develops managerial decision-making and stakeholder analysis through a study of ethical dilemmas in contemporary business. Topics include whistle blowing, corruption, bribery, human rights, crisis management, role of corporate boards, lobbying, philanthropy, externalities, and sustainability.

Covers research and theory in the psychology of interpersonal conflict, as well as mechanisms for resolving, managing, or avoiding conflict. Emphasized domains are alternative dispute resolution, close relationships, and workplace and international conflict. Learn how to identify conflict styles and generate predictions from those styles about conflict and conflict resolution, as well as how to diagnose a conflict and provide recommendations for resolution.

Examine how personal mindsets, choices, behaviors, and outcomes impact their lives, other people’s lives, and their communities. Through coursework grounded in the Assets-Based Community Development Model, students are challenged to think critically about the effect of values, beliefs, and identities on how they engage with others and their communities at large. In a term-long community engagement project, students learn about themselves and others, apply class content to a community need, and reflect on the experience through a process that can benefit them throughout their lives.

Building key traits of authentic leadership and emotional and cultural intelligence that are critical to leadership success, including self-awareness, awareness of others, & managing self & relationships. Effective teamwork, interpersonal skills, empathic listening, mindfulness, inclusivity, and conflict resolution. Community engagement to complete a service learning project in an underserved community. Learn from local leadership through first hand experiences and strategies for addressing leadership challenges.Two field trips will visit significant cultural and spiritual sites for the tribes. Ongoing journaling and discussions will enhance this experiential learning. Improve clarity about personal mearning and purpose, values, and aims. Increase compassion, ethics, and connection with underserved communities in an increasingly interdependent world. Gain appreciation of the role of mindfulness techniques for increasing emotional intelligence, reducing stress, and improving focus, decision making, and creativity through the Koru Mindfulness Program, which was developed at Duke University for college students. Build self-trust, the foundation of trust in relationships, and learn how to increase trust in personal and business situations.