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news
Programs offer
field experience
By Kimberly Pasquis
On-line Forty-Niner
Studying abroad
for either a year or a semester can be way out of budget for
a college student, but that is not the only way to experience
the lifestyle and culture of another country.
Many departments
on campus offer classes that involve field-study in foreign
countries that relate to different disciplines.
Although the classes
are mostly upper division, students can become aware of these
great opportunities and plan to take the class when they are
eligible. After registering for these classes, students should
take note of any prerequisites involved for the class and
fees that may be self-reliant.
In the College
of business, a finance class takes students to Hamburg, Germany
in June following the spring semester. Paul Frantz, associate
professor of international business and business law, has
been teaching the German-American Business Student Workshop
for five years. It is a special topics course offered through
the finance department.
According to Frantz,
Cal State Long Beach has an exchange program with the Hamburg
University of Applied Sciences. An exchange occurs with the
German students coming in the fall, and CSULB students visiting
them in the spring. Once in Hamburg, the students stay the
homes of their German counterparts.
Students are encouraged
that the course be taken both semesters so that they able
to experience both perspectives of the German and American
markets.
"The students
are able to see another culture personally," Frantz said.
"They are not going over as tourists and they gain an
experience that they would not get by staying in hotels."
James Archie, professor
of biological sciences, will be taking his herpetology class
to Mexico during spring break. The class is offered every
other year and is combined with an entomology class. Archie
said 10 to 20 students will travel a total of 2,800 miles
from Baja California to the tip of the peninsula.
The class will
study the changes in bio-diversity as it travels down the
coast. They will experience the changes in the Southern California
biology to the tropical biology of Mexico. According to Archie,
analysis will be done to note the changes in species composition
as well as the vegetation change.
This trip is funded
through an instructionally related activities grant, which
comes from student fees through the university.
Traveling deeper
into South America is Dessie Underwood, assistant professor
in biological sciences. A new advanced ecology course will
travel to Costa Rica also during spring break.
Working with the
Organization of Tropical Studies, the class will visit two
of its three field stations, Underwood said. The first one
is located on the Pacific Coast near Nicaragua, which is a
tropical deciduous environment. The class will be doing sampling
and studying the plant and insect diversity.
The second field
station is in Los Selva, a lowland tropical rainforest, is
in a different ecosystem. The class will then quantitatively
analyze the two areas.
Many departments
on campus offer great experiences like these, the hard part
is finding them. If traveling abroad is in your interest then
try using your major as an avenue for getting there.
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