I'm Kurt! Animal Science major with minors in Poultry & Avian Sciences and International Agriculture. My picture is one of my favorite pictures from my Philadelphia Zoo internship. I serve at Gigi's Southern Table on the weekends and recently was hired in a research lab on campus. I'm hoping to study methods of improving food security in graduate school. After this study, I want to continue researching methods of improving food security at a land grant university as a professor. Ideally, this would be through poultry models as a way to improve protein nutrition in children.
Well, first and foremost, my interest in this course is to travel. I've only been out of the country once - to Haiti - but I loved the experience. The time I spent in Haiti was with a missions trip for my church's youth group. Before the trip, we raised funds to help rebuild a school that was demolished the the earthquake the previous year. Until a few months ago, actually, I wanted to go to grad school in Spain. I also thoroughly enjoy traveling in the USA as well. My recent travel experiences in the USA include California, Georgia, and an internship in Arkansas last summer.
Secondarily, I need this trip to satisfy the INTAG minor requirement to travel. That being said, this course's content works well with my career aspirations. I hope to work in international aid, increasing food security. Learning about education in a developing country will give me context of how to learn about educational strategies (formal and non-formal) in other countries if I see potential in using such avenues. I'm very excited to learn agricultural structure in Belize as well.
My friend in Animal Science traveled to Belize this previous summer with CELA Belize. Her experience was framed around veterinary medicine, as she will be applying to vet schools starting this summer. While she was in Belize and when she came back, she spoke so highly of the experience and the country. So when I saw that the College was offering an embedded course travelling to Belize, I jumped on the opportunity because of how much my friend enjoyed the experience.
One thing that I personally hope to gain from this course and experience is a better understanding of Central American agriculture. I have an idea in my head of how farming is done in developing countries (I do understand it differs between region and climate), but because I only have experience in one other country, my ideas can't be all that close to the truth. I hope to challenge my preconceived ideas with a truthful experience in-country.
Finally I have to say: After reading The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw (I'm almost done!) I'm so incredibly excited to visit the Belize Zoo.
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