Ecuador | Study Abroad Opportunities

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I spent the winter semester of my sophomore year in the Andes Mountains of southern Ecuador. Seven other American students (three of them fellow Northlanders) and I took five courses through Round River Conservation Studies, all focused mostly on conservation biology. Round River works directly with Northland, making registration and credit transfer simple. We found ourselves sitting around our dining room table, either in our house in Cuenca or in a grass hut at our upper field camp, eating freshly baked banana bread, learning about Ecuador and all its amazing biological diversity. Our time was split between Ecuador's third largest city, Cuenca, and our field camps in the páramo at 11,500ft, working a couple weeks at a time in each. Our five professors each shared stories from their very unique backgrounds, inspiring us to travel more and keep learning.

We each conducted a field research project, including Puya clava-herculis plant distribution, Pristimantis bambusiphilus frog surveys, bird surveys, and plant regeneration after fire. Several hikes a week kept us in tip-top shape, physically and mentally. We had many culturally enriching experiences in addition to our biology studies. We spent time in home stays, where we shadowed our families, eating what they ate, which was all delicious, and helping in daily activities such as milking cows and picking veggies out of the garden. After our home stays, we invited our families to our field camp for a cookout of alpaca, rice and potatoes. Later that week, we returned to the village to play some Sunday soccer. Other highlights of our time in Ecuador were watching rare Andean condors fly soar around us while trekking on El Altar, seeing Andean bears, ocelots, and kinkajous at our professor's animal rehabilitation center, collecting blood for llama DNA work, castrating genetically unfit alpacas, and exploring the gringo filled beach town of Montañita.

Our classes were in English, so we didn't practice our Spanish much unless we were roaming through the city, playing soccer with villagers, or trekking through the country after the program. Taking a Spanish course with Dr. Michele Small in the fall before my semester abroad was a great refresher course to complement my previous four years of Spanish in high school. I hope to continue taking Spanish courses here at Northland to further my cultural education.