If you love water as much as we do...and you have yet to hear all about the wonderful SUSIE program at Oregan State University...you don't know what you're missing!
Two months ago, we interviewed hydrogeologist and Professor of Geosciences Michael E. Campana and somehow we overlooked the amazing stuff his own students are doing!
The Study of the U.S. Institute for the Environment (SUSIE) is a program for Central American and Caribbean undergraduates that emphasizes all things water, including watersheds, sanitation, citizen stewardship and infrastructure.
SUSIE recently brought together 22 students from 8 countries to OSU to spend the entire season in mult-disciplinary environmental studies. In an article by OSU's Powered by Orange, we learned that students like Johara Henriquez, a food technologist who wants to implement cleaner food production in the Dominican Republic, Political science major Jamille Chen from Jamaica, and Panama's Marianne Ricord studying biology and interested in working at the Smithsonian, would have never known about the great things they could be doing (and are doing as we speak) as well as getting their Master's at OSU, if it weren't for the SUSIE program. The students range in age from 18 to 24 years old.
They take classes and lots of field trips emphasizing the relationship of water in environmental science, public health, engineering, policy and governance. This is the first time the program has come to OSU. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Study of the U.S. Institutes, has come to Oregon State. The program is led by the Institute for Water and Watersheds (IWW) and International Programs.
So where does Mr. Water King Michael Campana fit in? He co-directs the program with Marion McNamara of International Programs.
“We’re trying to show them similar or common problems between Oregon and their countries. We want to show them how we deal with problems here, so that when they go back to their countries they can say, ‘I spent five weeks in the U.S. Let’s see if what they’ve implemented there can work here. They’re aware of the problems in their own countries, and several are amazed at the infrastructure we have here,” says Campana in the article.
We know that this program is influencing the students to go home to their own countries and begin work cleaning up the water there. And let's hope we can be inspired to do the same. Keep up the great work!
Image Caption from Michael Campana's blog WaterWired: Che Dillon of Trinidad and Tobago - smiling in the background here, shown with (clockwise from lower left) Marianne Ricord (Panama), Daniel Flores (Honduras), Johara Natasha Henriquez (Dominican Republic), and Khaliqa Mohammed (Trinidad and Tobago) - sent me this link to an article about the program from the U.S. Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago.
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