I initially went into my Beyond the Classroom Experience looking for opportunities to understand and find solutions to the problems within our food systems by taking in as much information from Montanan farmers as possible. While I’ve developed a more nuanced perspective on sustainable agriculture and the problems farmers face, both locally and globally, I am uncertain about the best solutions to the negative impacts of pollution, climate change, soil degradation, etc. This has motivated me to seek out more agricultural experiences in the future, to allow my perspective to continue to be shaped by both the physical nature of daily labor and the educational wisdom of the many leaders in sustainable agriculture.

My theme of resources and sustainability has allowed me to focus on how the PEAS farm participates in Missoula’s local food system, as well as how Montana’s regional food system challenges the dominant industrialized global food system. This experience within agriculture has also given me the opportunity to understand how my specific global challenge connects to the GLI’s other themes, from the variety of technologies used alongside traditional cultural agriculture practices, to the relationships between ecological and human health that the many farmers I met are developing.

My experience on the PEAS farm has confirmed and reinforced my desire to engage with sustainable agriculture as a leader. Working on the PEAS farm has taught me that education and community are essential aspects to my passion for fostering positive relationships and change in people and our environment. In disposition, I intend for the confidence and willingness to grow and take on new responsibilities that I built over this summer to continue changing throughout the rest of my time in the GLI. I also have a more tangible appreciation for examining the context of a culture of people and the land they interact with in a direct, often physical manner, especially because my challenge is rooted in aspects of culture that represent one of our most intimate relationships with the landscape.  

During this summer experience, I also learned what it means to be in a team in a socially encompassing context spending hours a day together, as well as the skills to motivate each other during our highs and lows. The trust between my peers and instructors over time developed a desire to impress and improve for the sake of everyone’s enjoyment. With hard work, I couldn’t only show my best, surface level self, I had to be vulnerable and recognize when I needed to take care of myself so that I could be more effective and empathetic.

Seeing the diversity of approaches to sustainability in agriculture in a dozen or so farms has taught me the numerous ways farmers need multiple solutions to support each one’s own unique economic and environmental conditions within their situations. On one field trip to eastern Montana, my group visited two large-scale farms with vastly different approaches to sustainability and soil health. One farmer ascribed to no-till practices but relied on targeted herbicide usage to keep down weed pressure, and resultingly had to remediate the soil with extensive inoculants. The other farmer was organically growing food but relied on tillage to keep down weed and pest pressure, risking a long-term decline in soil fertility. Both farmers, however, were attempting to sustain a robust, healthy soil biology on the landscape with the tools and knowledge that had become available over the course of their lives. I’ve learned so much about the challenges all farmers face today within our food system. The numerous deviations from conventional large-scale agriculture, despite the difficulties in making a living or finding a market while remaining sustainable, is what makes the Montana farmers I met excellent leaders. Each one carries an intimate and responsible relationship as stewards of both the landscape and people.

BTC Experience Overview
My beyond the classroom experience was working as an undergraduate researcher with the Faist Lab at UM. During my time, I helped to work on a number of different graduate research projects working with soil seed banks in rangeland ecosystems, as well as start my own senior thesis with the lab. Most of my time was spent in the greenhouse managing the early stages of my senior thesis, doing literature reviews, actually crafting the research project, and helping others within the lab with things like data entry. My project is examining how soil seed bank community composition differs between depth and land management histories at a site south of Missoula.

Reflection | Before & After
Before my beyond the classroom experience with the Faist Lab, I was expecting a semester where I would be doing a lot of the grunt work of the lab as the undergraduate. What I didn’t expect was to take on nearly as much responsibility as I did. Being able to work on my own independent research has been such an amazing experience, and has really shaped what I envision as a future career for myself.

Global Theme & Challenge
My global theme is Resources & Sustainability, and my challenge is battling wide scale degradation and building sustainability within rangelands across the American West. Through this experience, I’ve realized that some of the most inspiring change in ecological research comes at the crossroads of advancing theoretical ecology, and also having the work be very applied as well. Diverse perspectives are incredibly important in this work, and I’ve found that connecting ranchers, restoration practitioners, land managers, undergraduate researchers, all the way to the highest level professors is the only way to make real rangeland restoration progress happen.

Cross-Cultural Understandings
Within my lab, and at MPG Ranch, researchers from all across the United States (and one researcher from Scandinavia) work together every single day. Ranging from Alabama, Oregon, Arizona, Tennessee, Minnesota, and so many other states, each and every person has such a unique backstory and connection to why they’ve committed their life work to rangeland conservation and restoration. This has made me realize why rangelands, taking up almost 50% of the terrestrial land surface, are a universal language of sorts. Nearly every culture on this planet interacts and relies on rangeland ecosystems in one way or another, making cross-cultural understanding and collaboration within research even more important.

Leadership Skills & Development
I think one of the most impactful parts of this experience was in the leadership skills I gained. Interestingly, I think that the majority of the leadership skills I gained were not actually in leading others, but leading myself. I learned that in order to make the most significant change in the things I am passionate about, there is no reason to not go for it with a 100% effort. Overcoming the feeling of imposter syndrome was a tricky challenge, but once I was able to believe myself when I said, “I am supposed to be here,” I felt so much more confident in the work I was doing.

Most Memorable Experience
I think my most memorable experience during this opportunity was when I was crafting my poster for the University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research. First off, I had such a blast with this and it was so fun to artistically express all of the ideas that I had spent so much time thinking about in the prior months. There was one graphic in particular that I was really proud of that I got a lot of compliments on. I also had lots of friends presenting at UMCUR, so it was really fun to be able to do practice presentations with them and hear about their research as well. Most importantly though, I was so grateful for the individuals who came to my poster and were genuinely interested and asking questions. I am obviously biased, but I think that my work is really interesting and empowering, so it was such an incredible experience to meet others who had the same interests and goals as me.

This Spring, I spent a few months in Costa Rica and Western Montana as part of the Semester in Wilderness Medicine program through Aerie Backcountry Medicine. Throughout many courses in a variety of unique locations, I wanted to answer the question “How can care be provided to those in rural areas, with a lack of access to medical resources?” During the semester, my experiences sparked another question of “How can medical care be adapted to be successful in all environments?”

Costa Rica: During our multi casualty scenario, the final large practical incident, of our EMT course, we were hit by a (rare during the dry season) thunderstorm. Instantly, all off our medical gear, clothes, and notebooks were soaking wet. It was hard to hear anything over the sound of the rain, adding to the difficulty of an already complex situation. We retreated with our patient actors to shelter and continued the scenario. We continued to triage, stabilize, and transport our patients, making do with the wet gear we had. I like this story because it was a good lesson on how adaptability and strong leadership become especially important in wilderness medicine.

While in Costa Rica, we had the pleasure of putting on free health clinics and participating in house calls in a few of the local communities around Mastatal. We saw many patients with a wide range of illnesses and injuries. For some of our patients, this is one of the few times they see a doctor. While Costa Rica has a strong, rather inexpensive healthcare system, it is inaccessible to many people living in rural areas. For these communities, healthcare is too far away to make the trip. Additionally, the culture here is very family oriented. Many families of three or more generations live together in the same home. It’s common for a mother to take care of her children and her parents at the same time, a strenuous responsibility. This responsibility, combined with limited access to healthcare can create a difficult situation for some families. Despite this, people are cheerful. Costa Rican culture is very friendly, relaxed, and overall happy.

“Pura Vida” is a common saying which means pure life.

After seeing the patients at our clinics, I think a big part of healthcare is simply having your problem understood. For example: A mother, stressed-out from taking care of her family members’ health, while simultaneously having to worry about her own. When it’s not possible to fully cure the patient’s ailment (which is often the case), being able to provide reassurance and give solutions where they can be more comfortable is extremely valuable. Annual clinics like these can make a big difference in rural communities. 

Montana: After traveling back to Montana, we spent some time in the Flathead valley getting our Avalanche Rescue certifications, Seeley lake where we took our Wilderness EMT course, and the Clark Fork River Gorge for Swiftwater and Ropes Rescue. These were all unique environments to each other and much colder than the previous month in Costa Rica. We dug snow pits to study the layers of snow and learn about avalanche danger, practiced putting patients in a “hypo wrap” to keep them warm, performed mapping and compass navigation, and used throw bags and rescue swimming techniques in whitewater scenarios etc.  

While learning different techniques, useful in these more specialized fields, the fundamentals of patient care we learned during the EMT course stayed the same. Being exposed to learning in different places taught me about the complexity of backcountry medicine, but also added to my understanding of the core components of medical care. One of these core components is leadership. In wilderness medicine you must be able to adapt to a changing environment. This changing environment often creates complicated situations where leadership is crucial. To provide the best possible care, group members must be able to work well together even when obstacles are constantly changing. As a leader, you must figure out a solution even when everything is going wrong. 

Thank you to the Franke Global Leadership Initiative, as well as Aerie Backcountry Medicine for this amazing opportunity!

With my Wilderness EMT certification from this course, I was able to work as an EMT on my wildland fire crew this summer. In the future, I plan to continue my career in wilderness medicine with wildland fire EMS and ski patrol.

TW: talk of forced prostitution and SA (comfort women)

When I first imagined my study abroad experience, all the way back in high school, South Korea was nowhere on my list of dream locations. However, after completing a semester in Seoul, Korea, I cannot picture having done my GLI Beyond the Classroom experience anywhere else. While spending my semester at Ewha Women’s University in the center of Seoul. I explored my GLI theme of Culture and Politics through the courses I was taking, adventures I was going on, and my Global Challenge. I wanted to dive into the historical lives of women and how those experiences have an effect on South Korean women and the culture there today. Korean history is…tragic, to say the least. This history is something that is often forgotten, especially in the US. However, when studying and living in Korea, I witnessed how it is still alive and honored.

One of the main reasons I chose to go to South Korea and focus on women’s experiences was my learning of “comfort women” the summer before. Women, and girls, were taken during the Japanese Colonial period from Korea as enslaved sex workers and many were not able to return home after the war. Those who did were forced to hide their trauma for decades afterwards. Nowadays though, comfort women and Japanese Imperialist rule are frequently talked about in academic, political, and personal life. The past is a living memory.  

Near my school was a statue in memory of comfort women which looked towards Ewha. I often would pause and look at the statue when I walked to the cafe or subway station. To me, she represented all of the women who dreamed of freedom and going to a school just like the one I was lucky enough to attend.

Ewha Women’s University is quite possibly the most beautiful campus in the world, not for any explicit reason, but because of how the campus and city makes you feel. There’s something magical about the subtleness of Korea that sucks you in and makes it feel like home. Yes, there’s K-Pop and huge billboards, and yes, subways do get so packed sometimes it feels as if all the air is gone, and yes, the humidity was a new form of torture for a MT girl like me. But, there’s another side to Seoul that I was able to explore during my time at Ewha. I fell in love with Korea through the food, the architecture, the flowers and the small moments. 

The most important takeaway from my time abroad was to appreciate the mundane. Which, I know, sounds so cheesy, but is crucial when you are immersed in a new place. Some of my favorite memories are sitting at a cafe on Tuesdays with my friends or taking a silly photobooth picture on the way home from dinner. Discovering the local spots in my neighborhood, like the park that overlooked Ewha and Sinchon, where I would go alone to read and journal, felt way more authentic than going to a tourist attraction. These moments are what made my time in Korea so much more, and not just a vacation. Korea taught me how to slow down, which is ironic for a place known for its fast paced lifestyle. This lesson was pivotal especially in this stage of life, and I’m so so so thankful for getting to experience Korea in a way that allowed me to learn about another place, but also about myself!

Hello, my name is Audrey Gustafson. I had the fantastic opportunity to spend last spring semester studying in Athens, Greece at the American college of Greece. 

Like most students preparing to study abroad, I had many expectations; some of which were filled in unexpected ways. While I was excited to explore the culture of Greece, I anticipated using Athens as a home base to explore more of Europe. I pictured myself jetting off to a new country every weekend. In reality, I did have the chance to visit a few other countries, however I quickly realized that most of my weekends would be spent at my apartment in Athens. I was disappointed at first, however it was a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to spend more time exploring Athens and made me cherish the trips I did take that much more. Some of my favorite trips include fulfilling a lifelong dream of experiencing the winter olympics in Milan, and visiting a childhood friend at her apartment in London. This expectation for grand adventures extended even down to the daily. I anticipated that my afternoons after class would be packed with sightseeing, museums, and exploring the city. In reality I spent many days just going to class and going home or staying within the neighborhood. While I felt guilty for this at first, like I was not taking advantage of my opportunity abroad, in hindsight, those days spent in my neighborhood were some of my favorites. I enjoyed becoming a regular at our local cafes, reading in the sun at the park, and going on lots and lots of long walks.

While in Athens, I took a course called “energy and climate” that changed my perspective on my global theme of resources and sustainability. Throughout my participation in the CCS minor at UM, I have taken many classes exploring this topic, however my biggest takeaway from my course abroad was a non-US- centered take on energy. Due to the fact that Greece is a smaller country that is rich in wind and solar energy, the way that the government approaches renewable energy is different than in the US. One discussion topic that shaped my perspective was the intersection of environmentalism and archaeology. One of my professors did research on the effect of acid rain on archeological artifacts/monuments. This is a topic that is particularly relevant in Greece due to their rich history and archeological wealth. This was such a great example of how environmental topics can be catered to very specific local contexts, a concept that will be applicable to my process in designing a capstone project. 

Top Left: signs in Athens, Top Right: My sister, Annika, at the Acropolis, Middle: a cat on the Island of Naxos, Bottom: making friends on Naxos

Studying climate change and energy in Greece gave me a perspective on my global theme of resources and sustainability outside of the United States that broadened my view on what environmental stewardship can look like. According to an article from the Pew Research Center, surveys show that over 80% to 90% of Greeks view climate change as a major, human-driven threat. Additionally, Greece operates under European Union mandates, providing both a governing framework as well as high public support for renewable energy subsidies. On the other hand, the United States faces deeper ideological divides when it comes to energy policy, as well as quickly shifting national leadership. Climate threats such as wildfires, hurricanes, and draughts effect the United States regionally, leading to localized responses in comparison to a more unified front in Greece. It was fascinating to compare a more localized approach to environmental stewardship in the United States, to a top-down approach in Greece where decisions are made to satisfy EU guidelines.  

Studying in Athens changed my relationship with time and productivity. Living outside of the United States was a great opportunity to disconnect with “hustle culture” and enjoy living slowly. Instead of living under the expectation that time must be maximized in order to be as productive as possible, the Greeks approach long meals, coffee, socializing, and spending time outside much differently. It was refreshing to learn that not every moment needs to be productive or scheduled. This ties in perfectly to the realization that staying in my neighborhood wasn’t “wasting” my study abroad experience. I enjoyed long afternoons reading in the park while old men played chess, or lounging on the beach without feeling like I should also be studying flashcards. I learned that I did not need to “maximize” every free afternoon to have a meaningful experience. Overall my cross-cultural understanding came more from learning to exist comfortably in a culture that was previously unfamiliar to me, than from checking cultural experiences off of a to-do list.

My time abroad changed the way I approach interpersonal interactions. Building a new network of friends and acquaintances in the three months abroad required rapid vulnerability. During a typical semester or even college in general, there is ample time to build and deepen connections. On the other hand, the three months spent abroad left little time for gradual relationship building. I found it challenging to deepen friendships over the short amount of time that I was abroad. This concept is not unfamiliar to me because the same problem exists during short summer field seasons working guiding or field jobs. The skills that I built this semester will be applicable to my career sinceI will likely be working many seasonal positions.

Despite the challenges that come with any experience abroad, I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to study abroad in Athens!