News Release

Columbia offers new ecology program in Dominican Republic

Matching grant award makes new course possible

Grant and Award Announcement

Columbia Climate School

With the help of a two-year $125,000 grant from Theodore W. Kheel, the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), will offer a five week long course to undergraduates from around the world beginning July 21, 2003. The Summer Ecosystem Experiences for Undergraduates Program (SEE-U) earns six credits from Columbia University. Through a special scholarship arrangement, three students from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo will also enroll in the course.

SEE-U is a field ecology methods class offered by CERC to further the training of the next generation of environmental leaders and citizens. This summer will be the fourth consecutive season in which the course has been offered, and will be the first to include both the Punta Cana Biodiversity Laboratory in the Dominican Republic, as well as the Ecological Research Institute (IPE) of Brazil, where the course has been offered annually since 2000.

Students in the SEE-U program are involved in the development and collection of exploratory data for original research, as part of both the collaborative group activities and their individual research projects on a topic of their own design. Graduates not only have a solid grounding for continuing in the fields of conservation, ecology, and environmental biology, but will have also been given the tools to be good environmental citizens.

"This is exactly the type of program we hoped the Punta Cana Biodiversity Laboratory would be used for: introducing students to the study and conservation of their natural surroundings, " said Mr. Kheel, chairman of Grupo Punta Cana where the Laboratory is located. "If these students leave with an appreciation of the essential nature biodiversity worldwide plays in their daily lives, we will have accomplished our mission."

Don Melnick, Executive Director of CERC said "Ted Kheel's timely and generous support has given CERC the opportunity to develop the SEE-U program in a new location, giving students the choice of different ecosystems to study in. We now will be able to develop this rich and rewarding program for students in the Caribbean which will provide an experience they will carry with them for the rest of their lives."

James Danoff-Burg, Director of the SEE-U program and instructor for the inaugural 5-week course in Punta Cana said that the variety of landscapes available around Punta Cana will give students an unparalleled opportunity to study a great diversity of plants, animals, and ecosystems. "We have wanted to expand the SEE-U program into a location where we could apply our curriculum in an area that includes both marine and intertidal ecosystems. Thanks to Mr. Kheel's generosity and partnership, we are now able to expand into the Caribbean – a site that promises to be tremendously popular with our students."

The three students from the Dominican Republic will be chosen in collaboration with faculty at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, the oldest university in the Americas, as well as researchers at The Botanical Garden of Santo Domingo, and the Institute for Forestry and Agriculture. This opportunity for students of many nationalities and educational backgrounds is also important to the future of conservation, as future scientists from all over the world will have to work together to solve complex environmental problems.

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The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) is a consortium of five leading science and education institutions – Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, The New York Botanical Garden, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Wildlife Trust. The Center, a unit of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, employs a wide array of resources to train the next generation of environmental leaders charged with conserving Earth's biological diversity. For more information please visit http://www.cerc.columbia.edu.

The Earth Institute at Columbia University is the world's leading academic center for the integrated study of Earth, its environment, and society. The Earth Institute builds upon excellence in the core disciplines –earth sciences, biological sciences, engineering sciences, social sciences and health sciences –and stresses cross-disciplinary approaches to complex problems. Through its research training and global partnerships, it mobilizes science and technology to advance sustainable development, while placing special emphasis on the needs of the world's poor. For more information, visit www.earth.columbia.edu.


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