Round River Student Programs

INVESTING

Doug Peacock, Round River Board Chair

Today, we witness a spreading skyline of increasing uncertainties. Our planet faces the greatest threats ever known to mankind from massive species extinctions and global weather changes. The current economy tugs at our bootstraps, curtailing a collective effort to mount a counter attack against the environmental precariousness that will fundamentally alter the daily lives of our grandchildren. As a parent, I fear that future and ask myself where I should invest the scattered energies of my remaining life.

My own answer, in part, has been to arm the younger people around me (my own children, our Round River students, or the sons and daughters of tribal neighbors) with the tools, education and, hopefully, the acquired wisdom necessary to take on the staggering tasks of conservation and survival in the 21st century. I can’t think of anything more important. And, though this work includes protecting wild habitat, preserving plant and animal diversity and supporting the culture of traditional people, it is also the unsolicited job of saving the earth, hoping their experience in the wider world will filter back to help us all identify and act on the perils facing our own kind. The perception of risk is critical here; a child in danger, a dark alley or a personal brush with tragedy generates an appropriate emotional response far more easily than the distant but predictable ocean rise that will displace a billion starving human strangers.

Round River Conservation Studies directly addresses many of these issues through its student programs. In fact, within my own family, no educational institution or study has been more important than Round River’s field programs. It has been a life-changer, a lifesaver. Living in the field, with like-minded fellows immersed in real work and study that feeds into vital research and immediately benefits a larger community, inevitably creates a tight-knit clan of students eager to apply these skills to an expanded world. The fact that much of Round River’s field programs involve working with local communities and traditional people, deeply accentuates, in my opinion, a sense of global responsibility and the mingled fates of all creatures.

I encourage all parents to look into Round River’s student programs, the field studies that have enriched my children and promise to yet shape their future. But check it out for yourself. Most of Round River’s projects unfold in big wilderness, dramatic landscapes that challenge and inspire the human imagination. Talk to the staff or past students. There’s something different about a Round River field camp; life is more holistic and flexible than in other academic outdoor laboratories. It is the real world—beautiful, demanding, scary, wonderful—and we are in it. I can’t imagine a more profitable, rewarding experience for a young person. It’s where I want to stack my chips.

Round River Study Abroad Programs

Round River Conservation Studies is a non-profit organization focused on international conservation research and education. Round River believes landscapes are powerful educators. Our student programs are designed to involve small groups of students with inspiring people and actual research projects that are finding and implementing solutions to real conservation issues. The student programs contribute significantly to the larger conservation initiatives of Round River and our local partners.

What you can expect to experience on a Round River program:

Working with local people
Whether it is Quichua farmers in the montane cloud forests of the Andes or rhino game guards with Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia, we understand that people living in the areas we work are the long-term stewards of that landscape. Round River forms partnerships with local people and organizations in order to provide scientific expertise and help form conservation strategies that work in accordance with that community’s environmental values. As a student you will work and interact with these people, and not only get first hand experience with their culture, but also be exposed to the complexities of achieving conservation objectives in communities with diverse needs and interests.

Field Research
Ultimately, these programs are about getting your hands dirty, and offering you the satisfaction of knowing that the projects you are working on are contributing to actual conservation initiatives. You will gain field skills and learn how to design research studies. Round River feels that it is essential that anyone interested in conservation and the environment, whether in science or the Humanities, get out and walk on the land. We strive to attract students from all backgrounds from Biology to English majors.

Academic Credit:

On our semester programs you will take 5 courses and receive 15 semester hours of college credit, which is accredited through Utah State University. The summer program offers 3 courses for 9 semester hours of credit. Lectures are offered by our instructors and researchers or local experts, and are as likely to take place around the campfire in the evening as at one of the research stations. During the program you will work with other participants, instructors, and researchers to ultimately compile and analyze the data you have collected, produce a scientific, written report, and present your findings to our local partner.

Why Round River is different:

Round River is more than just an outdoor classroom, and students quickly realize they are part of something dynamic. People may come with the simple expectation that they will be better prepared for graduate school by doing fieldwork, and after walking and working in a place like the deserts of Namibia find the inspiration for what they want their education and lives to be. Some of our students have participated in similar programs, and offer that being part of a group that is only 5 to 8 people allowed them to see more, do more, and know that their input was needed and appreciated. Some of our students come back to do two or even all three of our programs. They revel in the flexibility to explore opportunities such as spending the day at a Tlingit grave house recording the oral history of a Taku River Tlingit elder or documenting feeding habits of rare Golden-plumed parakeets in the cloud forest canopy of Ecuador.

The Round River Student Programs Catalog may be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat pdf format:

Download RRStudent_Catalog.pdf

A supplement to Student Programs Catalog describing the Colorado Plateau Project may also be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat pdf format:

Download Colo-Plateau.pdf

The Round River 2009 Meanderings Newsletter may also be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat pdf format:

Download the Round River 2009 Meanderings Newsletter