I couldn't agree more with what Jason Hernandez had to say in reaction to Clara Jones' piece on experiential education and study abroad programs. The following is my response to Clara's statements:
Antioch University's Brazilian Ecosystems program does not cater exclusively to financially privileged students. Yes, some students can write a single check to cover all program costs, but that is rare. The average student funds the program by stitching together federal financial aid, aid from their home institution, and summer job paychecks. We are also often able to provide tuition aid to the neediest applicants. Concerning your complaint about the questionable value of environmental education abroad programs, I can understand your disappointment with some of the less than academically credible programs on offer in this particular arena of education. They can be considered offensive given the urgency of the current biodiversity crisis. Perhaps you can understand how frustrating it is to be mistakenly included in that group. In fact, wrongful allegations in this regard can work against the power that strong education abroad programs have in transforming young students into professionals with important contributions to make towards biological conservation. Over the past fourteen years directing the Brazil program, I have learned that serious students are savvy consumers when deciding on a study abroad program. They ask for course syllabi, they contact past participants. The fingerprints of my education at Stony Brook University, the University of Georgia's Institute of Ecology (Odum School of Ecology), and my own participation in an Organization for Tropical Studies field course, are all over my development of the Brazilian Ecosystems program. And, in published descriptions, students easily identify this program as one that can effectively advance their post-graduate career goals in ecology and conservation. Antioch's 16-credit Brazilian Ecosystems program is a fully accredited university program that undergoes annual external and internal review and assessment. Schools such as Bard College, Amherst College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Swarthmore College, Goucher College, among others, regularly enroll their students and continuously monitor the quality of the program. I posted your message on our Brazil program alumni listserv, asking them to reflect on the value of their semester of experiential learning. Their replies came streaming in within only an hour or so. They gave strong personal testimonies to the way in which their program experience uniquely catalyzed their post-graduate work in the fields of ecological research, environmental policy, natural resource management, environmental law, and science education. Almost all of them blanched at the thought of undergoing Special Forces Survival Training in order to potentially come into contact with environmental criminals, who are capable of armed violence. But you may be pleased to know that the Rambo route to habitat protection was tentatively appealing to two former students. I most definately support the idea that we find some way to quantitatively measure the impact of all environmental study abroad programs on the issues you list, as representing an environmental "payoff". I would gladly welcome any information on how this might be done. We would all benefit from that. Suzanne Kolb Associate Professor of Environmental Science Director, Brazilian Ecosystems Program [email protected] Antioch University
