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WKU Students Prepare For Field Camp In Chile, Argentina
Bowling Green, Ky. - Twelve students and three faculty members from Western Kentucky University's Department of Geography and Geology are preparing to leave Wednesday (July 6) for a one-month field camp experience in Chile and Argentina.
Months of planning and preparation for the department's annual international field camp are complete, and all that's left to do is to pack the suitcases and make the 10-hour flight to Santiago, Chile, where the trip begins. Participating in the field camp experience this year are Bowling Green senior Laura Blackburn, a marketing major; Bowling Green sophomore Mary Blackburn, a history major and Laura's sister; Union sophomore Elizabeth Boggs, a theatre major; Bowling Green junior Wendy Warren, a recreation major; Louisville senior Ashley Littell, a geography major; Lewisburg junior Mindy Keeling, a broadcasting major; Lewisburg senior Travis Keeling, a geography major and Mindy's brother; Louisville junior Rebecca James, a Spanish major; Louisville senior Adam Hitt, a broadcasting major; Elizabethtown senior Christopher Hawkins, a geography major; Munfordville senior Benjamin Estes, a geography major; and Nashville graduate student James Chaney, a geoscience student. Four of the students – Laura Blackburn, Travis Keeling, Hitt and Littell -- participated in last year's study abroad field camp in the British Isles and had such a great experience that they signed up for this year's program as well. Leading the field camp are faculty from the Department of Geography and Geology: Dr. David J. Keeling, Debra Kreitzer and Will Blackburn. This summer's field camp is designed to expose students to the cultural and physical landscapes of the Andean region of Chile and Argentina. All students participate in the field camp course, and several have signed up to conduct additional research during the program on a topic related to their major field of study. During the one-month program, students will travel north from Santiago along the Pacific coast visiting agricultural communities, mining settlements, Inca ruins and the spectacular Atacama desert. After spending a week in the desert, the program will cross the high Andes into northwest Argentina by way of a newly developed pass between the two countries that reaches 14,000 feet above sea level. In northwest Argentina, students will explore the colonial region of Salta and Jujuy and then conduct an economic transect along the eastern slopes of the Andes between Salta and Mendoza. In Mendoza, the capital of Argentina's viticulture industry, students will have the opportunity to ski in the shadow of Aconcagua, the Western Hemisphere's highest mountain, before crossing back across the Andes to Santiago, Chile. The program concludes in Nashville on Aug. 3. "To prepare students for success in a global society, they should ideally have some engagement with societies beyond the borders of the U.S.," said Dr. Keeling, head of the Geography and Geology Department. "The Department's international field camp program, now in its fifth year, provides that opportunity." The department has successfully run field camp programs in Australia, Hawaii, Bahamas, Great Britain and Ireland, and has programs planned for Tanzania, the Bahamas and China for 2006. More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu. For information, contact Debra Kreitzer at (270) 745-5984.
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