Virtual Field School - Sustainable Communities & Environmental Change in Latin America

Are you searching for an international study-abroad experience for students at University of British Columbia during these uncertain times? This Virtual Field School is offering students an opportunity to remotely explore Latin America while learning about sustainable communities and environmental change with National Geographic Explorers.

Students will join field experts across Latin America as part of a certificate course in conservation, culture, and environmental change, all from the comfort and safety of your home. The course is an interdisciplinary social science and humanities field school that can be adapted to provide university credit for students. It offers seminars, virtual field-trips, and one-to-one mentorship by experts whose work with local communities has been funded by the National Geographic Society. It also includes project-based learning with participating grassroots community-based non-profit organizations.

In this Virtual Field School, participants will travel the seas of Costa Rica and Honduras, where they will learn about marine biodiversity, the impacts of tourism, and sustainable development. They will then head to the high Andean mountains of Peru to learn from Quechua artisans about their traditional knowledge in light of the environmental, cultural, and economic changes they face. Finally, they will visit the remote forests of Paraguay to better understand the complex realities of conservation work where the government is not pro-environment.

The five participating instructors first came together through the National Geographic community to create the Virtual Field School as a collaborative solution and response to COVID-19, which has detrimentally impacted their five NGOs and community partners, who are struggling to survive economically during this time of crisis. All five course instructors will donate 100% of their teaching fees to their partnering non-profit organizations, to be able to continue their important conservation and community-engaged socioeconomic development work, now and in the future.

Students can register for the course or learn more here. For more information, contact us at info@virtualfieldschool.org.