Last Call: Kenya Study Abroad - Winter 2012
>
> Dear Campus Community,
>
> This is the last call for applications to do the Kenya Study Abroad Program
> this winter 2012. Applications are due tomorrow, November 30th. There are
> still a couple openings for the UW Tacoma Kenya study abroad course this
> Winter quarter. Students focused on conservation and sustainable
> development are welcome to apply.
>
> The Kenya program provides students with access to areas of Kenya and
> corresponding first-hand experiences that are possible because of
> relationships that have been built over the past several years between UWT
> faculty and Kenyan colleagues. For example, part of the course involves
> travelling to the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest near the community of Watamu on the
> Indian Ocean. Here students will have the chance to work with a
> world-renowned ornithologist collecting data on the birds of this forest,
> including six species that are on the brink of extinction.
>
> Students will get experience in constructing mist nets and helping collect
> vital information (species/age/sex/weight/condition) about the birds before
> they "ring" them (placing a uniquely numbered metal ring or band on the
> birds' "ankle") and release them back into the wild. Participation in this
> course affords students the opportunity to help with an ongoing
> collaborative research project between UW Tacoma faculty and local Kenyan
> scientists. Conducted in collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Service, this
> research is focused on the intersection of elephant management and bird and
> arthropod conservation in the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. As the
> forest is ringed by 50+ villages whose residents (from the Giriami tribe)
> depend on local resources for survival, students will get a chance to
> engage in a deeper understanding of how elephant crop raids, human forest
> poaching activities, and conservation efforts in the region collide in a
> complex system of interacting dynamics. Students participating in this
> course in the past have gone on to return either as field research
> assistants with UWT faculty, or on their own doing their own graduate school
> field work.
>
> The Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and corresponding ecological research is just one
> stop on the Kenya program; other activities include working with the Watamu
> Turtle Watch on green sea turtle conservation (patrolling beaches for
> nesting turtles, helping release turtles caught in fishing nets) as well as
> working with water quality issues in communities on the coast as well as in
> the Samburu region of Kenya.
>
> To learn more and apply to do the Kenya program, please visit our website:
>
>
http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/travel/upcoming/kenya/index.cfm >
> To find out what it's like to participate in a Kenya study abroad field
> studies course, please visit 'Notes from the Field', a blog written from the
> perspective of one of the program leaders, Professor John Banks:
>
>
http://uwtfieldwork.blogspot.com/2010/02/uwt-kenya-sustainable-development-s > tudy.html
