Au Sable
This May, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Great Lakes campus (Michigan) of the Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies. Three weeks of Natural History later, I have to say to everyone age 18 to 80, if you get the chance to take a course at any of the three campuses (two in the U.S. and one in India), go!
What makes Au Sable so great, you ask? I spent three weeks in one of the most beautiful natural environments I could imagine: a primarily deciduous forest all but obscured the view from building to building on the campus, bracken fern brushed against my waist as I walked along the wood-chip paths, and kayaking on the lake after class always offered a respite from the flies. The community at Au Sable is kind and active. Dish duty isnât a drag when youâre doing it to music with four of your classmates! After-dinner volleyball matches, Ultimate Frisbee, jumping in the lake, and hilarity over Taboo, Cranium, and Settlers of Catan filled the hours when we probably should have been studying. Weekends, many people would catch a movie in town, go down to a cabin, or take a trip to Mackinack (pronounced âMackinawâ) overnight. Those who stayed on campus would go to church together on Sunday morning, and Sunday evening saw Vespers bring the whole community together in the lodge to sing, reflect, and pray.
It wasnât all perfect. The tent caterpillar infestation was particularly bad this year, and I have pictures of caterpillars as long as my finger clinging to the edge of my dorm room! At times, if you stood still too long, theyâd start crawling up your shoe, and if you werenât looking for long spider-like strings hanging from trees, you might end up with a collection in your hair! Flies were an annoyance too, but fortunately they werenât of the biting variety, or we would have been a very itchy group indeed! We still got anxious about our midterm and our final exams, and still had reading and homework most nights, just like ârealâ school. But the enthusiasm of our professor (Dr. David Dornbos, or âDouble-Dâ) for what he taught, late-night âshiningâ (where you drive through the brush with a bright spotlight, looking for light reflecting off dusk-roaming critters), and my first-ever field course experience made it more than worth the few struggles.
All-round, Au Sable was both an excellent academic and recreational experience. Many âAuSableitesâ come back year after year, and while I donât have the time or money to travel there every year, I hope to return before I graduate. It simply taught me too much to stay away!
(Check out www.ausable.org for more detailed information on their campuses and programs, including internships, diplomas, certificates, and many courses in agriculture, biology, and chemistry)
This post was authored by Theresa Looy, a second year Environmental Studies student at The King’s University College.
Posted: July 27th, 2010 under King's Students, Looy T.
Tags: Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies, Biology, Field Course, Michigan
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