Alum Service Learning Projects From “Conway and Panama: A Series of Fortunate Events,” in con’text (2007) and “Alums, Students, and Faculty Explore Design in the Sonoran Desert: Conway Service-Learning Trip 2011,” in con’text (2012) By Paul Cawood Hellmund
Conway alums paddle down a rainforest river near the Panamanian village of Achiote, where they worked with villagers to help plan ecotourism infrastructure.
Last spring [2007], Conway alums could be found exploring the sights and sounds of the rainforest village of Achiote on the Costa Bajo of Panama and also working with villagers to help develop aspects of their ecotourism infrastructure. That was only days after a team of Conway students made their final winter-term project presentation to an enthusiastic audience just fifty miles away, in the nation’s capital city. On that same day, Matthew Arnsberger ’98 (part of the Achiote team), Conway advisor Edwina von Gal, and I represented our school’s board of trustees in presenting an honorary degree to Panamanian sustainability expert Charlotte Elton. ... The Conway School hosted its second service-learning trip in spring 2011 when thirteen participants headed into the Sonoran Desert for a week working side-by-side with residents of Ajo, Arizona. Trip participants raved about the experience and some are planning to return next year. “It was one of those pinnacle life experiences for me, introducing me to a new place, amazing people, and opening up new ways of thinking about place and nature,” said one participant. “It was a powerful reminder of what the Conway community means to me,” said another. n
Recent Conway Student Projects Outside New England: Azuero Peninsula, Panama (Winter 2007) Cauquenes, Chile (Winter 2008, Winter 2012) Pucón, Chile (Spring 2010) Spannocchia, Tuscany, Italy (Winter 2011) San Pedro, Mexico (Spring 2011) Ajo, Arizona (Winter and Spring 2011, Spring 2012) Rutland, Ohio (Spring 2012) Laura Rissolo ’11 discusses sketching techniques with young Panamanians during an alum service learning trip.
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY REPORT
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