
School for Field Studies: East Africa
I never expected myself to study abroad. Dickinson is a school with a huge emphasis on a global education, and yet I when I started I did not foresee myself leaving for a semester or a year as most of my friends did. After spending a year at Dickinson, I began to consider the idea of studying abroad. Even so, I was not completely sold on the concept but I began to consider my options. I have always wanted to go to Australia more than anywhere else in the world. I wanted to attend a field school and SFS has an Australia program; so that seemed like the most logical choice for me.
After participating in the Climate Mosaic, my ideas began to shift. I started to think about if the Australia program had everything that I wanted in an abroad experience. I focused many of my projects from the mosaic semester or different regions of Africa and I was becoming more and more interested in the people and the forces that shaped the continent. In addition, there are many regions of Africa vulnerable to climate change. As someone interested in issues of water quality and scarcity in the face of climate change, it became more and more obvious to me that Africa might be a better place to study abroad. In addition, the SFS East Africa semester had a stronger cultural component than the Australia program did. Before I knew it, I found myself applying to study abroad in Tanzania!
My abroad semester was incredible from start to finish. During that semester, I gained valuable experience in field work, science writing, and data analysis. While this information was extremely important to my future studies, I also learned how to slow down. This may not seem like a very big deal, but I'm the kind of person who is always going a million miles a minute. My semester abroad was different because I spent time sitting on my front porch, playing cards, and writing in my journal. It was the first time in a long while, that I spent time completely in the moment. I did not worry about my next meeting or commitment. The internet quality was pretty poor which was really cool because it forced everyone to abandon a lot of the distractions we have here in the US. Nobody was worried about their next tweet, updating to their facebook, or the big break up in their favorite TV series. We had a really wonderful community and I am so grateful that I chose Tanzania.
![]() Field research | ![]() Three brothers on the hunt | ![]() Just "lion around" |
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![]() Rain or shine | ![]() A great rideOne day a bunch of us decided to take a guided bike tour through the local town and out onto the dried up lake. We had a great time biking amongst the wildebeest. | ![]() Lion in the shade of the car |
![]() Flamingo Count: 3,600 | ![]() Hungry Hyena | ![]() Birthday!This little goat was born while we were out collecting data for the directed research portion of the semester. |
![]() Day hike in Arusha National Park | ![]() Hamming it up for the camera |