By Anita Rathje
TRU Marketing and Communications
Two groups of students in their final year of the Adventure Studies major in TRU’s Bachelor of Tourism Management brought their unique kind of classroom to the seas of coastal Ecuador and the mountains of Chile. The program’s annual international tourism development field school, seeing increasing interest from students, expanded this spring to two locations. The yearly international field school opportunities and experience in community development are one reason Maclean’s 2011 University Rankings issue selected the Adventure Studies major as one of the eight “coolest programs” available to Canadian university students in any faculty.
One group of students began a new project, teaching sea-kayaking in a community on the coast of Ecuador to develop tourism potential there, and another travelled to the Andes in Chile for six weeks, for the second year of community development projects with a high school and the municipality.
The fourth-year elective, which begins with a week of intensive Spanish lessons, put Adventure Studies students to work in the South American communities, creating a tourism plan which centred around hiking and sport fishing in Chile, and sea-kayaking in Ecuador.
The Adventure Studies program prepares graduates to help communities develop, direct and promote adventure experiences, and students participate in numerous projects for local and foreign agencies.
“I am incredibly thankful for the opportunities I have had to meet incredible people, build lasting relationships, and have such a variety of experiences over a short 4-year period,” wrote 2012 graduate Abbey Bronson after her return from the Chilean field school this spring. In addition to the field school, she spent a year studying abroad in Switzerland, found work-study employment with the Adventure Studies Department, and developed references and networks for future employment in her field.
Read Abbey’s experience testimonial, and her story about a weekend hiking trip while in Chile, at The Adventure Project, the department’s blog.
