In about 72 hours, we load onto a plane to travel from JFK (NY) to Johannesburg South Africa to start our 16 days abroad. This travel is the highlight of the NCUHS South Africa Field Studies course. This conservation biology course incorporates real-world conservation efforts for the students to experience in the northeastern portion of South Africa and Swaziland. Over the span of two semesters, the students worked to earn a science credit by writing research papers, learned about South African history/art history/languages from art teachers/anthropologists/independently and then traveled to South Africa to experience all of these components first hand.

This program was born from Gerry Hunt and Elaine Lockwood who organized Vermont Students to Africa (http://www.vermontstudentstoafrica.org/).