During my four years at Dartmouth, I had the wonderful privilege of traveling and learning abroad in places I never thought I’d see. I also, in my last term as a senior, took a class called COCO 21: What’s in Your Shoebox? that helps students unpack and integrate the lessons they’ve learned during their abroad experiences. Below is a collection of each of the abroad experiences I participated in, some selected writings from those experiences, as well as some of the reflection pieces I generated as part of the COCO 21 class!
Namibia
In the fall of 2024, I traveled to Namibia with Dartmouth College as part of their Environmental Studies abroad program. We spent three weeks in the coastal town of Swakopmund diving deep into issues of sustainability and governance, another three traveling to community conservancies to explore community-based conservation and trophy hunting, and then four at the Gobabeb Research Station conducting our own ecological research projects. My group focused on a vegetation assessment along the Kuiseb River to help determine if the river would be an adequate area for giraffe translocation, the final results of which can be viewed here:
COCO 21: I also prepared a reflection using two photos taken during this study abroad that really stood out in my memory.
Iceland
In the summer of 2024, I was lucky enough to take part in the Dartmouth Sustainability Office’s first sustainability immersion trip to Iceland. Traveling through Reykjavik, Akureyri, Husavik, and Mivan, we met with private companies, government officials, local nonprofits, and others to dissect the successes and challenges currently facing Iceland’s robust geothermal energy system, its fishing industry, its push towards electrification, and its efforts to better manage and reduce industrial and residential waste. You can view a summary video produced by Christopher Johnson, Senior Video Producer at Dartmouth College, below!
Costa Rica
In the fall of 2023, I had the incredible opportunity to intern with Osa Conservation, an organization based in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. As a member of the sea turtle team, I helped to study and protect endangered turtle species, educate others about the importance of conservation, and assist in the many other conservation projects the organization offers. You can read my final report on the experience here:
COCO 21: Many of my creative writing pieces during this course focused on this experience. The difficult work, incredible environment, and close relationships I found made it ripe for reflection, and you can see a selection of some of my reflective works (as well as the prompts that led to them) here:
As part of the class, we also created digital stories that highlighted pivotal moments during our time away and the lessons we took from them. My story centered on one of the most difficult moments in the entirety of my time abroad, and taught me a lesson that emerges time and time again in today’s world:
And finally, using a camera provided by the research station, I was also able to journey into the world of wildlife photography! Here are the best I took during my time there!
Spain
My first time ever traveling abroad, during the winter of 2023 I flew to Barcelona as part of Dartmouth College’s Spanish Language Study Abroad. Over the course of 10 weeks we were fully immersed in the culture and languages of Catalonia, taking classes, living with a host family, and exploring some of the best sites the country has to offer. It was here that I was first able to put my Spanish to the test outside of the classroom and greatly improve my language abilities.
COCO 21:
