Liles is among the nine students from the Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ who have spent part of the summer studying technology, business and medicine in St. Kitts and Nevis.

“I think many of the things you learn from trips like this are not exclusive to the field you study,� said Liles, a biology major. “Traveling to a new place and meeting all kinds of people opens your perspective to a whole other way of living so different from your own. A dream of mine has always been to work in global health, and experiencing the health care setting of a different country was an amazing opportunity.�

The trip to the West Indies was part of the President’s Scholars Program, which provides a study-abroad experience to students in Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s Burnett Honors College. The college has partnered with Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in St. Kitts for more than six years for the program, which started in 2004. It was initially focused on European culture and history but evolved into a two-week trip to St. Kitts and Nevis in which students tackle service-learning and interdisciplinarity head-on.

The trip followed five weeks of lectures at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ that focused on the challenges small island nations face.

In St. Kitts and Nevis, students built solar panels to power a hydroponics facility, developed the design for an organoponics shadehouse, led a hybridponics entrepreneurship workshop for students and completed other projects. Students also made trips to the rainforest and explored colonial-era relics in addition to presenting their work to a government panel and being featured on local television news.

For junior Lucien Charland, who is majoring in international and global studies and economics, the trip was an opportunity to take his studies outside of the classroom and apply what he’s learned to a real-world setting.

“I was able to experience firsthand some of the difficulties facing developing nations. More importantly, I saw how partnerships and investment can address those difficulties,� Charland said. “I learned about the inner workings of a few of the government ministries and departments on the islands and developed a recommendation proposal to help them become more cohesive and to advance in areas like agrotourism.�

In May, two alumnae of the President’s Scholars Program returned to Nevis with Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ professor Kevin Meehan to present their work on sustainable agriculture at the UNESCO Conference on Environmental Policy Formulation and Planning in the Caribbean Region.

Charlene Kormondy and Jessica Gottsleben presented on sustainable farming and the businesses of hydroponics, respectively, based on the research they had completed with faculty and students at Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.

Meehan has led the President’s Scholars trips for the past five summers, helping students research hydroponic, organic and hybridponic agriculture and develop and install sustainable agriculture systems.

The partnership with Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College has attracted attention across the Caribbean, which Meehan says will pave the way for future Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ students to get involved with service-learning.

“Our students were recognized as regional experts at the UNESCO conference, and we recently received funding from the Organization of American States to implement our shade house system in Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana and Haiti, with additional interest from four other countries,â€� said Meehan. “With these projects to complete, there will be further opportunities for President’s Scholars alumni to return to the field and gain additional experience implementing projects and presenting research at international development conferences.â€�

But the trip, part of the President’s Scholars Program offered through the Burnett Honors College, proved to be more than a talking point on her résumé. She said it was an immersive experience that allowed her to broaden her global awareness and cultural sensitivity through a variety of academic and community service projects.

“I think the Honors College has a great emphasis on interdisciplinary learning and this program really embodied that in terms of combining the different disciplines in the projects we did,� said Crawford. “It was interdisciplinary studies in action.�

Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ President John C. Hitt initiated the The President’s Scholars Program in 2004 to provide a study abroad experience to Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½â€™s highest-achieving students. Initially, the program was focused on European culture and history. It took students on study abroad trips to areas such as Cambridge, England and Bergamo, Italy.

The program evolved into a two-week trip to St. Kitts and Nevis in which up to 12 honors students participate in an interdisciplinary approach to service-learning.

The trip followed five weeks of lectures at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½ that focused on the environmental challenges small island nations face. The study abroad element challenged students to tackle issues head-on, considering policy solutions and recognizing the impact tourism and agriculture have on the environments of Caribbean nations.

This year’s scholars participated in a variety of activities, including snorkeling among sea urchins and attending the St. Kitts Music Festival.  The majority of the trip, however, was spent working on service-learning projects in conjunction with Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in St. Kitts.

Kevin Meehan, an associate professor of English at Â鶹ӳ»­´«Ã½, became involved with the program in 2008, the first time the President’s Scholars traveled to St. Kitts. In 2009, Meehan became a trip leader and combined his community contacts on the island with the professional contacts of the other trip leader Martin Dupuis, assistant dean of the Honors College.

“Between the two of us, I think we created a powerful combination of networks so that the students would have access to everything, from top to bottom,� Meehan said. “One of the strengths of this program is that we have built up really strong partnerships over there in the past four years. This opens up a lot of doors to collaboration and service projects.�

This summer’s trip divided students by major, challenging them to work on projects related to agribusiness, construction and public health.

During the second week, the students regrouped in Nevis to work together on an oral history documentary on local agriculture practices. Students interviewed farmers and fishermen, then compiled and presented their findings at a roundtable discussion with representatives of the Nevis Department of Agriculture.

“The trip benefited my leadership and academic skills, and it also gave me the opportunity to look into the government policies, public opinion, history, entertainment, and journalistic outlets of the islands,� said junior Jessica Gottsleben, whose team developed and hosted a four-day workshop for the new agribusiness department at Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.

Meehan said he and Dupuis tailor the projects to meet the needs of their partners on the islands, creating work that is just as relevant for participating students as it is for the communities. This year, the program also offered full participation to four students from St. Kitts and Nevis.