BVU Students Spend January on Storm Lake, in Madagascar, Working from Dorm
During January Interim students took part in a course that connected literary experiences with real environments, travel focused on biodiversity, and work experiences.
By Allyssa Ertz, Communications Intern
Many see winter as a season to mimic bears, hibernating until the Mother Earth thaws. During January Interim at Buena Vista University, several students channeled their inner polar explorer in following Dr. Samuel McMillan, visiting assistant professor of English, who directed a course connecting texts from across the globe to adventures in ice and snow.
“We’re reading a bunch of stuff on polar explorers, people going on walks in the woods, snowshoeing, and actually trying to compare what it would be like to camp out here versus people out in the Antarctic,” McMillan says.
McMillan’s hope is for students to gain an appreciation for their own winter adventures by understanding others’ tragic experiences in literature. The frozen wilds offer experience for students to appreciate winter survival skills.
Students hiked and tried to build fires through the inspiration of “To Build a Fire,” a Jack London novel. The class camped overnight near the shores of Storm Lake.
“This is the first time I was able to travel internationally, and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity without the McCorkle Fellows program."
Autumn McClain
“I’m really excited. I’m a big camper, but this will be my first time camping in winter,” says Aidan Cronin, a senior biology major.
Students on this camping trip were not confined to camping in snow. If uncomfortable, they could return to their dorm. McMillan’s request was for each student to try to see what it may have been like for explorers they reviewed in class.
“You normally think about literature as really confined to the classroom, a stuffy book thing. We’re adding an experiential angle to it, trying to see connections between the book and what you can actually do outside class,” McMillan says.
The bulk of McMillan’s students hailed from the sciences.
“I think doing a more active course tends to get more people involved outside of the humanities, mostly because it’s easy to look at literature, but it’s very detached from the real world. When you actually take the real world and merge it, you can get around that,” McMillan says.
Students took what they’d gleaned from Innuit authors to see what they could catch while ice fishing on Storm Lake. Student Joe Hayden served as professor for the day, as he’d been ice fishing before.
“This is only my second time being here for January Term. I’ve traveled the other two times,” says Cronin, who mentioned stays in Ireland and Chile. “My favorite experience was my research internship on great white sharks in South Africa.”
Nine BVU students recently returned from Madagascar, a January Interim travel experience.
“Our focus of the trip was environmental conservation and biodiversity. Madagascar has the most biodiversity out of anywhere on the planet,” says Autumn McClain, a sophomore multicultural media studies major.
The McCorkle Student Fellows program enabled students to have this travel experience through an application process. Faculty members Dr. Swasti Bhattacharyya, professor of religion, and Jennifer Hecht, assistant professor of accounting, led the trip which focused on development in environmentally sustainable environments.
After flying 22 hours, the BVU contingent traveled throughout the island for a week before reaching Centre Valbio, a biodiversity-focused research center. Environmentalist conservation, helping endangered species, and interaction with residents of Madagascar villages were covered.
“This is the first time I was able to travel internationally, and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity without the McCorkle Fellows program,” McClain says.
While these students experienced Interim halfway around the world, Sydney Gunderson, senior graphic design major, spent January working out of her dorm room, managing social media, marketing, and designing graphics for the website serving Steven Brown Pen Creations.
“It’s definitely unconventional. We only do phone calls, FaceTimes, or emails, and I actually do all my work from my suite,” Gunderson says. “It’s very different from having to go into a job from eight to five.
“It’s definitely been beneficial in helping me figure out what I want in a career, and improve my communication skills,” she adds.