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Panama (PNE) Program Links - 1 4265

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• Educational Excursions
• Homestay

Panama: Development and Conservation

Program Highlights

Students in the Panama: Development and Conservation study abroad program explore both the country’s extraordinary biodiversity and the effects of human interaction with the environment. Conservation scholars, researchers, and local experts teach students through lectures and seminars while also guiding them in fieldwork.

The program consists of three phases: a four-week homestay in Panama City during which students take Spanish and begin the Development and Conservation Seminar and the Field Study Seminar; a six-week period during which students conduct field studies throughout Panama and part of Costa Rica; and a four-week period during which students focus on their Independent Study Projects (ISPs). Each phase exposes students to different perspectives on conservation and development through interactions with a variety of stakeholders – from banana plantation workers and members of forest-dwelling communities to experts on environmental policy and evolutionary theory.

Panama City

During their homestay in Panama City, students participate in field excursions and attend lectures by local professors and professionals on a variety of subjects related to development and conservation, such as community forestry, the role of gender in natural resource production and consumption, and the environmental impact of current political and social events. Students are also immersed in Spanish language study through intensive language classes and daily interaction with their host families. This four-week period helps students become acclimated to Panamanian culture and introduces them to the relevant issues of development and conservation in Panama.

Field Study

During the second phase of the program, students participate in educational excursions throughout Panama and part of Costa Rica. Students live with local families in rural mountain and lowland areas to learn about subsistence living and conservation in central Panama. Students also travel along the Caribbean coast, where they study terrestrial and marine ecology at the Smithsonian Institute’s Bocas del Toro Research Station, the premier research station located on Colon Island. During their excursion to Costa Rica, students study sustainable agriculture and education at EARTH University in Guacimo de Limon.

Independent Study Projects

Students spend the final part of the semester focused on their Independent Study Projects (ISPs). The ISP provides students with an opportunity to critically examine a specific topic related to development and conservation in Panama. Students receive guidance from the Academic Director and a project advisor who may be a professor from a local university, a researcher from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), or an expert from another organization. In the past, some ISPs have provoked the interest of local NGOs, conservation experts, and government officials.