CC students, faculty take learning on the road

CC sponsors a student-run chapter of Habitat for Humanity, which helps build homes for those who lack adequate shelter.

Spring break began March 11 and many Camels have made a different part of the world their classroom until classes resume March 28.

Laura Zerra ’07 and Rachel Chase ’05 will click into cross country skis and snowshoes to monitor the buffalo population in West Yellowstone, Mont. The students are volunteering with the Buffalo Field Campaign to check the herds and document actions taken against the buffalo.

Fourteen CC students will work long, hot days building a Habitat for Humanity house in Austin, Texas. The group will build a three- to -five-bedroom home alongside contractors and skilled carpenters, as well as the future occupants of the house. The group works on construction projects in New London and the surrounding area every Saturday.

Three classes have left New London behind for destinations abroad as part of CC’s Traveling Research and Immersion Program, or TRIP. The program involves short-term, faculty-led journeys to a site that can be anywhere in the world. The TRIP is designed to give students a hands-on experience crafted to complement the work of a specific course.

Students in an intermediate Japanese class are immersing themselves in Japanese culture for 10 days in Tokyo with Hisae Kobayashi, senior lecturer.

Eighteen students are on a two-week trip to Berlin with Marc Forster, professor of history, and Geoffrey Atherton, assistant professor of German studies. They will get a close-up look at Berlin’s history, culture and architecture.

And 13 students have traveled south with David Canton, Jacob & Hilda Blaustein Assistant Professor of History, to see Alabama as part of a class titled, “The Black Freedom Struggle, 1946-1968.” Students are visiting the National Voting Rights Museum, the Rosa Parks Museum, the Civil Rights Memorial, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. They will also attend a civil rights workshop at Alabama State University.