Emilia Askari
School for Environment and Sustainability
In March 2025, 11 undergraduate students and three master’s students embarked on a 10-day educational trip to Colombia as part of a pilot three-credit Program in the Environment course. Environ 464, Colombia: Narratives from One of the Most Eco-Diverse Countries in the World, was taught by PitE lecturer and environmental journalist Emilia Askari with support from co-instructor Vanesa Hernández Jackson, a SEAS community engagement program manager and Colombian-American. This report summarizes the outcomes of the trip, which was created with the help of a grant from Global Michigan.
The course-related trip was designed to provide students with hands-on experience in narratives about Colombia’s varied ecology, sustainable agriculture, and community-based conservation practices. Students interacted with Colombian environmental organizations, engaged with local communities, connected with a key SEAS alumnus running an avocado farm, and explored diverse ecosystems, including the iconic Amazonian rainforest and the rare high-altitude Andes wetlands known as the Paramo. Students and instructors spent 4.5 days in the small Amazonian town of Belén, and 3.5 days in the capital city of Bogotá, which is known as a sustainability leader throughout Latin America. In Bogotá, Environ 464 was built on an ongoing teaching collaboration that Emilia has developed over the past four years with faculty at one of Colombia’s leading institutes of higher education, Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano.
Outcomes
Experiential Learning: Students gained practical skills in environmental journalism and qualitative data collection, interviewing a wide range of people, and through direct involvement in local projects related to ecology and sustainability. Student reflections are shared in this piece on the SEAS website.
Cultural Exchange: The trip facilitated cross-cultural interactions, increasing students’ cultural competencies and understanding of global environmental issues.
Research & Teaching Collaborations: Initial discussions were held to expand teaching collaborations and establish research collaborations with Colombian universities and NGOs, laying the groundwork for future projects.
Awareness and Advocacy: Students reported increased awareness of the socio-political context of environmental issues in Colombia, inspiring them to advocate more actively for sustainable practices.
