Winter Break 2024 Participant
The group trip to Hinewai Reserve was the most rewarding part of the program. This place stands out as a shining example of what can be accomplished when you dedicate yourself to bettering the environment. Getting the opportunity to meet Hugh was so lucky, and honestly inspiring, as he really showcases a lot of the virtues I love about people, and was more than happy to stop and chat with us students, even when we weren't scheduled to see him at all.
Winter Break 2024 Participant
It is a very valuable experience to go to a new country and learn from people different than you. We learned about the sustainable initiatives in N ew Zealand so we come back and hopefully implement them here in the US.
Winter Break 2024 Participant
One thing I learned is that just going exploring and getting to know your surroundings is the best thing you can do, as well as to be careful but not worry so much about getting a little lost or turned around. One of the best things my group did was start walking around and trying to orient ourselves with where we are, as well as practice taking the metro to familiar locations so that when we have free days we would be comfortable taking it longer distances. Doing this at the beginning of our trip helped things to go a lot smoother since we took the time to walk around and even though we risked getting a little lost, by a couple days in we we able to have a good general idea of where we are and what's around us. This really helped when we had to find certain buildings for classes or certain meeting spots for getting back together as a group. It was also a really beneficial thing to do since by the time our free day came, we made plans to take an hour bus ride to the beach and since we had experience going on the bus for shorter distances, we knew how to properly navigate which busses to take to get to the beach which likely saved us a lot of trouble.
