Plant Science Students heading to Bolivia, Australia

Brian Borden

Brian Borden

Many students will be spending their spring breaks on vacation away from all things college. No classes, no books, no professors, no papers or presentations to write. However, students in International Multicultural Agricultural/Biological Science Experience will not have a break away from those things.

Those students will spending their spring break in Australia or Bolivia as part of their class work.

The 2000-2002 SDSU undergraduate bulletin describes the trip in the course description. Saying that students will participate in a one to three week travel/study abroad experience to another nation to experience and evaluate diverse food and agricultural systems.

Plant Science Professor Jim Doolittle, who is one of two faculty members taking the group to Australia, said the class is open to all students.

“The course is an off-shoot of the BioStress Center of Excellence and is a requirement for those students. But the course is open to any student in the University,” Doolittle said. “The students are paying for the trip because it is a part of the course, but financial aid does apply,” Doolittle said.

Doolittle said the students will visit many interesting places while Down Under.

“We will get to see Kangaroo Island and make a short trip to the Outback for some camping,” he said. “We are also going to get to see a rain forest. Our last day is in Sydney,” Doolittle said.

According to Doolittle, 10 students will be going to Australia and 10 to Bolivia. They will depart March 7 and March 21. When the students return, they will give an oral presentation.

To prepare for the Australia trip, students have been reading “The Road to Koran,” which describes the life of a woman growing up in Australia in the 1940s.