Quest   

This membership is valid for the Spring 2026 quarter, April through mid-June.

This membership comes with a 100%-off discount code that can be applied to one (1) of the following classes (to be published at a later date):

• The Internet Neighborhood
• MyChart: Online Doctor's Office
• AI: A Friendly Introduction

 

The discount code will be included in your order confirmation email for the membership – so do not purchase the class you want for free until you receive the code! 

This membership is valid for the Winter 2026 quarter, January through two-thirds of March.

This membership comes with a 100%-off discount code that can be applied to one (1) of the following classes:

• Welcome to Windows 11: A Fresh Start
• Save, Search, Send: Digital Mastery 101
• Your Digital Footprint: What the Web Remembers

 

The discount code will be included in your order confirmation email for the membership – so do not purchase the class you want for free until you receive the code! 

Save the Date! The Spring Quest Social will be held Wednesday, March 11th at 1:00pm at the Titus Creek Bistro.

This is a HyFlex class, meaning that each class meeting you may choose to attend either in person or online via Zoom. The Zoom Meeting ID and link will be included in your registration confirmation email.

Required Materials: laptop or mobile device. 

Purchase a quarterly Quest membership to receive a 100%-off discount code that can be applied to one (1) of the following classes:

• The Internet Neighborhood
• MyChart: Online Doctor's Office
• AI: A Friendly Introduction

The discount code will be included in your order confirmation email for the membership – so do not purchase the class you want for free until you receive the code! 

Please note that a prerequisite for this class is the ability to independently rise from and get down on the floor without assistance. 

A $9 fee for use of the Student Recreation Center (SRC) is included in the course fee. All students must sign the SRC Usage Policy Acknowledgement before the start of class in order to attend. You will be asked to sign the policy during the registration process.

Yoga mat recommended. Yoga blocks provided. 

Delve into the lives and literature of two influential African-American writers of the 20th century: James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Together, we will read several of their novels, including In Another Country, If Beale Street Could Talk, Black Boy, and Uncle Tom’s Children, plus a selection of their shorter works and essays. Come ready to examine and discuss these author’s insights into the human condition!

Required Texts:

• Baldwin, James. The James Baldwin Collection. Library of America, 2024. ISBN‎: 9781598537932.
• Wright, Richard. Richard Wright: The Library of America Unexpurgated Edition. Library of America, 2019. ISBN: 9781598536225. 

 

This class will be held online using Zoom. The Zoom Meeting ID and link will be included in your registration confirmation email. 

All materials provided. Must register by Friday, 5/22. 

Walla Walla is the cradle of Northwest history. Explore the county’s astounding natural and human history to discover what makes it so special. In this broad introductory tour, learn about the Missoula Floods, wildlife habitats, the origins of the Snake, Columbia, and Walla Walla Rivers, and more. Visit Rooks Park, Waitsburg, Prescott, Charbonneau Park, Ice Harbor Dam, McNary Natural Wildlife Refuge, and more – all in one day! 

Transportation will be provided. Meet at 7:15am in front of the WWCC Dietrich Activity Center Building A (Dome/Gym). We will depart at 7:30am. Be ready to walk a half mile at two of the stops. 

Required Materials: Lunch; water; hat; sunglasses; binoculars; camera; light jacket; good walking shoes (no deck shoes). No pets. 

Meet at 7:15am in front of the WWCC Dietrich Activity Center Building A (Dome/Gym). We will depart at 7:30am.

For ages 21+. Must register by Wednesday, 3/18. All materials provided. 

Note: In the event a scheduled session cannot be held, a prorated refund for that session will not be issued. The College will make reasonable efforts to reschedule the session prior to confirming cancellation.

All materials provided. 

Note: In the event a scheduled session cannot be held, a prorated refund for that session will not be issued. The College will make reasonable efforts to reschedule the session prior to confirming cancellation.

This time, we will explore the work of Sydney Pollock, one of Hollywood’s most versatile directors. During a career of over 40 years, Sydney – a former acting teacher himself – worked with a wide variety of actors on films spanning a multitude of genres and styles. If you’re prepared to engage in an equally wide range of discussions and experiences, then come and enjoy the show!

Explore the rich history of activism at Whitman College and beyond in this guided museum tour. To Make Us Free: Witnessing Activism at Whitman & Beyond highlights the work of students, faculty, and staff who have advocated for racial and gender equality, opposed war and climate injustice, challenged institutional complicity, and created more accessible and inclusive spaces on campus. 

Join Kynde Kiefel, Director of the Donald H. Sheehan Gallery, as she walks you through the exhibition and shares insights into the featured artworks, including Umma Rises: Towards Global Peace by Mina Cheon. The tour will also include other galleries on campus, offering a broader view of how creative expression is highlighted across Whitman College. 

Drawing inspiration from Audre Lorde’s essay Poetry Is Not a Luxury, this tour invites participants to consider how imagination and creativity are essential tools for envisioning new possibilities for justice and equality. 

All materials provided. Must register by Wednesday, 4/8. 

All materials provided. Must register by Friday, 4/17. 

Must register by Friday, 5/22.

Students will carpool to secondary locations. All students must sign a field trip liability waiver before the start of class in order to attend. Upon enrollment, a link to the waiver will be included in the order confirmation email. 

Required Materials: comfortable walking shoes or boots; jacket; hat; bag or backpack; lunch; water.

Suggested Materials: binoculars, hiking poles. 

Arrive a little early! The group will meet in the main WWCC parking lot, in front of the Dome/Gym. We will depart at 9:30am.

No class held 5/25.

The most celebrated Russian writer of the 19th and early 20th century was not Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, but Ivan Turgenev – polyglot, world-class chess master, and the man who did more than anyone to open up Russia to the West. Admired by Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, Henry James, Gustave Flaubert, and Ernest Hemingway, but despised by Tolstoy and mocked by Dostoevsky in The Devils, Turgenev was both adored and envied in his lifetime. Together, we will discover Turgenev’s stunning sensitivity to nature; to injustice; to people from all walks of life; and to the subtlest emotions underlying everyday life – including his eternally relevant novel of generational gap and conflict, Fathers and Children. 

This is a Hyflex class, meaning that each class meeting you may choose to attend either in person or online via Zoom. The Zoom Meeting ID and link will be included in your registration confirmation email.

Required Texts:

• Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Children. New York Review of Books, 2022. ISBN: 9781681376356.
• Turgenev, Ivan. First Love and Other Stories. OUP Oxford, 2008. ISBN: 9780199540402.
• Turgenev, Ivan. Sketches from a Hunter’s Album: The Complete Edition. Penguin Publishing Group, 1990. ISBN: 9780140445220. 

No class held 4/15.

Purchase a quarterly Quest membership to receive a 100%-off discount code that can be applied to one (1) of the following classes:

• The Internet Neighborhood
• MyChart: Online Doctor's Office
• AI: A Friendly Introduction

The discount code will be included in your order confirmation email for the membership – so do not purchase the class you want for free until you receive the code! 

This Spring’s lineup is as follows:

• 4/1: Wild Stories from the History of Bird Migration Research with Rebecca Heisman
• 4/8: What is Freedom? with Anthony Covert
• 4/15: Bioprinting and Tissue Engineering with Ralph Stirling
• 4/22: A Royal City in Ancient Moab? Excavating the Iron Age at Khirbat al-Balu'a Jordan with Monique Roddy
• 4/29: Culture, Community, and Connection: Exploring Our Sister City in Japan with Sonja Gooding
• 5/6: Empowered Patients Get Better Care with Julie Kellogg
• 5/13: Foundation Appaloosas for the Future with Charles Potts
• 5/20: Friends of Children of Walla Walla: The Power of Showing Up with Liz Knapke
• 5/27: Fallout: The Absent Presence and Phenomenological Approaches to Recording in a Nuclear Reactor with Joe Becker
• 6/3: Our Native Pollinators with Heidi Dobson
• 6/10: Release the Natural Power of Stone to Enrich Modern Living with Jorgen Amtoft 

Note: In the event a scheduled session cannot be held, a prorated refund for that session will not be issued. The College will make reasonable efforts to reschedule the session prior to confirming cancellation.

This is a HyFlex class, meaning that each class meeting you may choose to attend either in person or online via Zoom. The Zoom Meeting ID and link will be included in your registration confirmation email. 

Required Materials: straightedge; pencil. 

For writers with some previous writing experience. 

The first ten amendments of the Constitution are collectively known as the Bill of Rights. Probably the best known, and most frequently cited, is the first amendment, which identifies five fundamental rights: religion, speech, press, assembly, and to petition government for redress of grievances. In this lecture & discussion class, we will study the first amendment and discuss many Supreme Court cases dealing with all five first amendment rights. We will discuss why we have a Bill of Rights. We will explore how these rights have been interpreted at different times by different Courts. What is symbolic speech? What is obscenity? May a public school start each school day with a nondenominational prayer? May a person burn an American flag to protest against the government? Must a a local Rotary Club allow women to be members? And, yes, may a person falsely shout fire in a theater? We will discuss all this and more in The Bill of Rights: The First Amendment. 
No class held 4/8.

The first ten amendments of the Constitution are collectively known as the Bill of Rights. Probably the best known, and most frequently cited, is the first amendment, which identifies five fundamental rights: religion, speech, press, assembly, and to petition government for redress of grievances. In this lecture & discussion class, we will study the first amendment and discuss many Supreme Court cases dealing with all five first amendment rights. We will discuss why we have a Bill of Rights. We will explore how these rights have been interpreted at different times by different Courts. What is symbolic speech? What is obscenity? May a public school start each school day with a nondenominational prayer? May a person burn an American flag to protest against the government? Must a a local Rotary Club allow women to be members? And, yes, may a person falsely shout fire in a theater? We will discuss all this and more in The Bill of Rights: The First Amendment. 
No class held 4/8.

Purchase a quarterly Quest membership to receive a 100%-off discount code that can be applied to one (1) of the following classes:

• The Internet Neighborhood
• MyChart: Online Doctor's Office
• AI: A Friendly Introduction

The discount code will be included in your order confirmation email for the membership – so do not purchase the class you want for free until you receive the code! 

Students will carpool to secondary locations. All students must sign a field trip liability waiver before the start of class in order to attend. Upon enrollment, a link to the waiver will be included in the order confirmation email.

Required Materials: boots; clothes for all weather (rain, sun, hot, and cold); sun protection; backpack; sack lunch; snacks; 2 liters of water in reusable containers.

Suggested Materials: hand lens; camera; $5 of gas money (for your carpool driver).

Hike is of subjective difficulty – while some have ranked it easy, others have found it up to twice as strenuous as its length (2 miles) would suggest. Will be slow, but largely on sand, and will include gentle ascents and steep descents of about 100 feet. Note that there will be no restroom facilities, no outhouses, and little cover, so prepare accordingly. 

Arrive a little early! The group will meet in the Main Bldg. D Rm 104. We will depart at 8:00am.

Students will carpool to secondary locations. All students must sign a field trip liability waiver before the start of class in order to attend. Upon enrollment, a link to the waiver will be included in the order confirmation email.

Suggested Texts:

• Carson, Robert J. Where the Great River Bends. Keokee Books, 2008. ISBN: 9781879628328.

Required Materials: boots; clothes for all weather (rain, sun, hot, and cold); sun protection; backpack; sack lunch; snacks; 2 liters of water in reusable containers. 

Suggested Materials: hand lens; $5 of gas money (for your carpool driver).

Hike includes a short but steep 700 ft. slope. Note that there will be no restroom facilities, no outhouses, and little cover, so prepare accordingly. 

Arrive a little early! The group will meet in the Main Bldg. D Rm 104. We will depart at 8:30am.

All materials provided. 

Note: In the event a scheduled session cannot be held, a prorated refund for that session will not be issued. The College will make reasonable efforts to reschedule the session prior to confirming cancellation.

Purchase a quarterly Quest membership to receive a 100%-off discount code that can be applied to one (1) of the following classes:

• Welcome to Windows 11: A Fresh Start
• Save, Search, Send: Digital Mastery 101
• Your Digital Footprint: What the Web Remembers

The discount code will be included in your order confirmation email for the membership – so do not purchase the class you want for free until you receive the code! 

No class held 1/19 or 2/16.

Please note that a prerequisite for this class is the ability to independently rise from and get down on the floor without assistance. 

A $9 fee for use of the Student Recreation Center (SRC) is included in the course fee. All students must sign the SRC Usage Policy Acknowledgement before the start of class in order to attend. You will be asked to sign the policy during the registration process.

Yoga mat recommended. Yoga blocks provided. 

Required Texts:

• Solnit, Rebecca & Young Lutunatabua, Thelma. Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility. Haymarket Books, 2023. ISBN‎: 9781642598971.
• Harper, Jane. The Dry: A Novel. Flatiron Books, 2017. ISBN: 9781250105615. Used purchase recommended. 

Greed, wrath, heresy: all this and more did Dante and Vergil observe in the upper seven circles of Hell... at least, according to Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno. But down in the deep lurk the final two circles, where those guilty of the gravest sins are punished with the most scathing satire that the author can conjure up. In this class, we will brave cantos 17-34 of The Inferno, completing our tour of Dante’s Hell while learning the historical context of the figures confined to its lowest circles. Upon emerging, we will study further materials demonstrating Dante’s continuing relevance to us living in the twenty-first century. Whether you attended the prior class or are joining this journey now, all are welcome! 

This class is a continuation of the Fall 2025 quarter’s Dante in His Time and Ours: Part 1, but students who have not taken that class are still welcome to attend this one. Newcomers are encouraged – but not required –  to read cantos 1-16 of The Inferno before the first session. 

This is a HyFlex class, meaning that each class meeting you may choose to attend either in person or online via Zoom. The Zoom Meeting ID and link will be included in your registration confirmation email. 

Required Texts (choose only one):  

• Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. Trans. Robert and Jean Hollander. Anchor, 2002. ISBN: 9780385496988.  
  • Instructor’s note: Lots of good notes and thoughtful commentary. Has the Italian original on facing pages: a big plus.
• Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno of Dante: Bilingual Edition. Trans. Robert Pinsky. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1996. ISBN: 9780374524524. 
  • Instructor’s note: Good poetic translation which makes it a little less literal in places. Also has the Italian on facing pages. 
• Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. Trans. John Ciardi. Signet, 2009. ISBN: 9780451531391. 
  • Instructor’s note: Good poetic translation preserving some of Dante's rhyme scheme. Somewhat dated; excellent notes. 

Prepare to enter uncharted waters – for in this class, we will explore acclaimed films that even the instructor has never seen! Though the ocean of cinematic history is vast, film reference books and the writings of noted historians and critics will steer our course. Together, we will watch and analyze films across a wide range of genres, countries, and eras – so come join us on this grand adventure! 

If you have little knowledge of geology but are interested in the multitude of landforms at the Earth's surface, then this class is perfect for you! Through diagram-aided lectures, discussions, and countless photos from across the world, you will learn how to recognize various landforms and discover their origins.

Together, we will study landforms produced by glaciers, from cirque glaciers to continental ice sheets; freeze thaw, such as permafrost; the caverns and surface features caused by the solution of limestone, also known as karst; and waves and their byproducts, including reefs. The environmental significance of all these and more will also be considered – from the thawing of frozen ground to rising sea levels. 

No class held 1/19 or 2/16.

     In life, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy gained fame for the works they penned – but in these mind-bending page-turners, three novelists turn the tables on such predecessors by transforming them into characters. Take, for example, Leonid Tyspkin’s Summer in Baden-Baden, which imagines the newly married Dostoevsky with his wife Anna on a train bound for Germany, where he would be torn between his triple passions for her, writing, and roulette. A later chapter in Dostoevsky's history is brought to life in The Master of Petersburg, in which J. M. Coetzee, depicts a grief-stricken Dostoevsky called back to Petersburg to unravel the mystery of his stepson’s sudden death. Meanwhile, in The Last Station, Jay Parini explores a dying Tolstoy’s tortured soul as his wife and chief disciple wrestle over his estate and legacy. Together, we will peel back the layers of dramatization and seek whatever insights such narratives may hold – whether about the men themselves or grander universal truths. 

This is a Hyflex class, meaning that each class meeting you may choose to attend either in person or online via Zoom. The Zoom Meeting ID and link will be included in your registration confirmation email.

Required Texts:

• Coetzee, J. M. The Master of Petersburg: A Novel. Viking, 1994. ISBN: 9780670855872. 
• Tsypkin, Leonid. Summer in Baden-Baden: A Novel. Trans. Roger and Angela Keys. New Directions Publishing, 2001. ISBN: 9780811214841. 
• Parini, Jay. The Last Station: A Novel. Picador, 1998. 9780805058239. 

This quarter, we will read Brian Doyle’s novel Mink River, a story of people who live in “A town not big not small” on the Oregon coast. Focusing on both Celtic narratives and those of Northwest Native Americans, Doyle wrote with brutal honesty and humor about the sanctity of each character contained within. Together, we will meet the vibrant cast of characters in Mink River and explore Doyle’s understanding of the importance of story in everyday life. We will also read some selections from Doyle’s posthumously published book of short essays, One Long River of Song. Come ready to trade insights with your fellow readers.

Required Texts: 

• Doyle, Brian. Mink River. Oregon State University Press, 2010. ISBN‎: 9780870715853. 
• Doyle, Brian. One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder. Little Brown, 2020. ISBN: 9780316492881. 

 

This Winter’s lineup is as follows:

• 1/7: How AI Can Help You Be More Human with Robert Keszeg
• 1/14: The Port of Walla Walla: Past, Present and Future with Pat Reay 
• 1/21: Japanese Whaling History with Bina Arch 
• 1/28: The Sherwood Trust with Brian Hunt 
• 2/4: Exploring Basil, Calendula, Lavender and Saffron with Katie Hopper 
• 2/11: The Gesa Power House Theatre: Part 1 with Monica Boyle 
• 2/18: The Gesa Power House Theatre: Part 2 with Monica Boyle 
• 2/25: Pioneers with Cameras: Part 2 with Donna Cummins 
• 3/4: Photographic Compositions of the Inland Northwest with Joe Becker 
• 3/11: Native American Law in America: Part 2 with Steven Aycock 
• 3/18: Our Native Pollinators with Heidi Dobson 

For writers with some previous writing experience. 

No class held 1/19 or 2/16.