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Sustainability and Study Abroad: Impact of a Lifetime

Brattleboro, VT (March 12, 2007) In 1992, Astrid Jirka experienced what she calls profound generosity which had deep impact on her life. While studying in Cameroon, West Africa with SIT's Culture and Development program, Astrid spent four weeks living in a small town called Ndicka with no electricity or running water. Her host Fabian Ndzana, nicknamed Ndebofa, supported her independent study project, which investigated the affect of the timber industry on local uses and views of the forest, including cacao and palm oil production.

"Ndebofa had very little resources, but he contributed enthusiastically to my research and gave me food and shelter. Experiencing such profound generosity from someone with such little economic means had a great impact on me and I felt deeply indebted to him," Astrid said. This experience has since influenced her professional and personal life on many levels. Astrid and Ndebofa have kept in touch ever since her study abroad experience.

Recently, Astrid successfully raised over $1,800 in response to a letter to Ndebofa that asked in what way she could best repay his generosity. She saw the opportunity to respond to one of Ndebofa's requests for an extractor so that he can more efficiently extract the oil from the palm fruit that he harvests. Without an extractor he has to process the palm fruit by hand, an effort requiring a tremendous amount of work and time and for which the profit is minimal.

The experience Astrid had learning with Ndebofa in Cameroon led her to pursue her interests in natural resource management and international development issues, which further led her into the field of eco-tourism. In her current position as Outreach Coordinator for study abroad programs at Ithaca College, she has been applying her learning from the field of eco-tourism to the study abroad field by examining how sustainability and study abroad are interconnected.

Astrid is currently looking at the social, economic and environmental implications of study abroad programs. She is interested in finding out how study abroad programs contribute to a just and sustainable world. Some of the questions which she has been raising concern social issues, such as the long term affects of study abroad programs within specific communities and the responsibility of study abroad students to give back to the communities in which they studied,as well as environmental issues, such as the ability of study abroad programs to teach about global issues of resource consumption and the contribution of study abroad programs to global warming through carbon emissions released through air travel.

As a result of her interest in sustainability and study abroad, Astrid wrote an article for Transitions Abroad entitled Going Global: Sustainable Travel and Study Abroad. In this article, Astrid tries to encourage study abroad students to do things which make their travels sustainable. She hopes students will stop and think about how their travel experiences affect the people and communities they visit. She outlines several environmental, socio-cultural and economic considerations that students should be aware of before they embark on their adventures.

Astrid sees her fundraising initiative for Ndebofa as related to her current work on issues of sustainability at Ithaca College. While there are certainly uncertainties in the manner in which this project was conducted, without the services of a non-profit organization and without particularly reliable communication between herself and Ndebofa, she sees the effort partly as a gift and an act of faith. While she cannot be sure that Ndebofa will be able to use the funds to buy the extractor that he had stated he needs (due to a variety of potential complications), she feels that the gesture of gathering the funds from the rich society in which she lives will be a great gift no matter how it is finally used.

Astrid’s aim to support Ndebofa’s work is an example of the awareness and understanding gained through a study abroad program. Astrid realized that her position could be of great help to Ndebofa...just as Ndebofa's position was of great help to Astrid during her ISP.

If you are interested in learning about Astrid’s fundraising efforts for Ndebofa, please read her staff page at Ithaca.

If you are interested in learning more about sustainability and study abroad and to contribute to a current call for articles on the subject, please see: