Students filled the San Ignacio Hall Auditorium on Oct. 15 to learn about SLU-Madrid’s first field trip to Kenya, an 11-day journey blending environmental science, cultural exploration and real-world research. The next trip, the highlight of Professor Iván Sánchez’s Environment and Conservation in Africa course, will take place in April. Spaces are still available, he said.
The course and trip combine academic studies, fieldwork research and community service. “It was a life changing experience. It helped that we all bonded so much as a group,” said Rose Johnson, one of 18 participants on the first trip, last March. “It was really challenging and very rewarding. We had experiences that you simply can’t get in a classroom.” During the trip, students explored ecologically and culturally rich regions, including Nairobi, the Great Rift Valley and the Maasai Mara. Days included either morning or evening wildlife expeditions, classroom sessions and field research. Students climbed Mount Kenya, visited Indigenous communities and set up camera traps overnight to record nocturnal animals.
“Every morning we’d check the footage to see what the cameras had captured overnight, it made our research come alive,” one student said. “It wasn’t always easy, but that’s what made it so rewarding,” Johnson said. “You learn to adapt, to trust your group and appreciate the world in a deeper way.”
Students spend the first part of the semester in Madrid preparing research questions and studying background materials before traveling to Kenya, Sánchez said. Once there, the team performs data collection activities followed by analysis work and sustainability and global-responsibility reflection.
“You come back changed,” said Johnson. “You understand what sustainability, adaptation and community really mean when you’ve seen them in action.”
