A ‘Truer, Messier’ Way of Knowing the Mississippi River

A ‘Truer, Messier’ Way of Knowing the Mississippi River

A ‘Truer, Messier’ Way of Knowing the Mississippi River This story is one in a series about the confluence of capitalism, conservation and cultural identity in the Mississippi River Basin. It is part of Waterline and is sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation. O ne week into the fall 2023 River Semester, a study away program stewarded by the Mississippi River Open School (MROS), Professor John Kim was on the brink of quitting. Nine college students and eight staff had just embarked on a 100-day educational journey, traversing the Mississippi River Basin by boat from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico.  Kim noticed that social interactions within the group that first week centered around TikTok dances. “It just felt like we were incapable of developing meaningful and substantive relationships with each other,” says Kim. Navigating the Mississippi River can be treacherous, and lacking social cohesion was potentially dangerous. Students lounging on the Open School River Semester sailboat …