Molly Priester ’14 in Kenya. Photo: Paula Kahumbu
Molly Priester ’14 wasn’t planning to study abroad until she learned about Columbia’s new program “Tropical Biology and Sustainability in Kenya.”
Priester always had an interest in environmental biology, particularly in insects, and started learning Swahili when she arrived at Columbia because of the diverse ecosystem of East Africa. She jumped at the opportunity to do field research, hone her language skills and study ecology in Kenya.
“For anyone interested in biology, it’s good to have field work, and if you’re studying environmental biology, [I think] there’s no better place to go than East Africa,” says Priester, who changed her major from philosophy to environmental biology after the program and now plans to pursue a related career. “The program fit perfectly with my interests, with its focus on ecology and field research and its location in East Africa.”
Priester was the first Columbia College student to study abroad with the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology’s (E3B) new field research program, which offers the chance to study ecology, evolutionary biology, conservation biology, environmental engineering, and sustainable development.
E3B is Columbia’s first study abroad program specifically for science students.
The program, run in conjunction with Princeton, was started during the 2012–2013 academic year by Professor Dustin Rubenstein, an E3B behavioral and evolutionary ecologist. Rubenstein had taken undergraduates to Kenya for a few weeks each year as part of spring and summer courses, but he wanted students to have the opportunity to spend more time exploring Kenya and to study not just ecology and conservation biology but also examine sustainability issues in the region with faculty members from the Earth Institute. He teamed up with the Office of Global Programs to design the spring semester “Tropical Biology and Sustainability in Kenya” course, Columbia’s first study abroad program specifically for science students.
Photo: Molly Priester ’14
“We’re able to do things in Kenya that we can’t do on campus,” says Rubenstein, who also took more than 100 students to Kenya as a Ph.D. student at Cornell. “For E3B majors, it’s often hard to get out into the field and develop such rich, hands-on projects in New York City. For sustainable development majors, they’re getting immersed in the issues that they study in the classroom.”
The program is based at Princeton’s Mpala Research Centre in central Kenya and is supported by Columbia’s Global Center in Nairobi. Students take four three-week course modules that rotate annually — “Biology of African Animals and Ecosystems,” “Natural History of African Mammals, Ecology and Conservation of African Landscapes,” “Field Ecohydrology” or “Tropical Agriculture” — taught by Princeton and Columbia faculty who do research in this region. Rather than being designed around lectures and textbooks, the courses focus mostly on research methods, data collection, data analysis, written reports and class presentations, along with discussions of primary scientific literature, most of which is based on work done in this region. Students are typically in class six days a week, from sunrise until late at night.
Photo: Molly Priester ’14
The Mpala Research Centre is located in an area where wildlife and cattle mix peacefully and many endangered species like wild dogs, lions, and elephants are thriving. Students also travel across Kenya to places such as the forested slopes of Mt. Kenya, and the agricultural centers in western and central Kenya. Beginning next year, the program’s directors hope to expand into the drylands areas of northern Kenya where the Earth Institute has been increasing its research presence and where international development in oil, wind, hydroelectric and solar energy is growing rapidly.
Rubenstein says the program is not just a “glorified safari,” but rather designed from the ground up to educate students to become environmental leaders in science, government or private industry by giving them an integrative global immersion experience. Students study complex issues from an interdisciplinary perspective and take an active role in the creation of ideas and scholarship that benefits local communities.
“Seeing such amazing wildlife is not a just a bonus for students and professors alike but also something that we can study and learn about firsthand,” Rubenstein continues. “One of the program’s primary aims is for students to learn how to do ‘real science’ — they are taught statistics and experimental design in the field, are introduced to primary texts in ecology and are given firsthand exposure to the rich biodiversity of Africa, from endangered mammals and rare birds, to a variety of insects and trees.”
Madeline Cohen ’12, an environmental consultant who studied tropical biology in Kenya with Rubenstein during summer 2011, says the trip exposed her to research concepts and skills that can be difficult to grasp in the classroom. This course, “Tropical Biology,” formed the basis of the introductory course that students now take in Kenya.
Photo: Molly Priester ’14
“We would wake up every morning and go bird-watching along the river, see baboons and hear other animals nearby. Each day we took a ‘game drive,’ a mini-safari of sorts where we would see elephants, giraffes, zebras, wild dogs, hyenas, lions, honey badgers and more, and learn intensively about the biology, behavior and physiology of these organisms,” she says. “We also completed several research projects while in the field, learning to understand and develop research concepts and skills from project planning to execution.”
Priester says her group did a project on the effects of cattle-raising outside Nairobi National Park, a unique ecosystem in that it is the only protected area in the world close to a capital city. Students presented their results to the local community and were able to see the relevance of their research in action. They also visited small farms, studied soil and plant diversity, and spoke with farmers about their agricultural techniques.
Priester, who is from rural Pennsylvania, says it was the kind of “rugged” study abroad experience she was hoping for. For the first part of the program, her group lived on a campsite without electricity, and would “just go outside and see elephants across from the campsite,” she says.
She was also glad to have the opportunity to pursue her own research interests. A project on the grasshopper biomass inside and outside of Nairobi National Park reaffirmed her childhood interest in insects; she now plans to pursue graduate work in entomology.
“I’ve had a casual interest in insects since I was very young, but had never considered studying entomology,” she says. “In Kenya, I did several projects on insects. That was a great inspiration to me to pursue the field.”
— Sydney Schwartz Gross ’05J