Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 9/10/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Dr. Naresh Kumar Continuing education students navigate rocky terrain in Tanzania.

Over the summer, ten continuing education students traveled to Tanzania in a trip organized by the Ellison Miles Geotechnology Institute at Brookhaven College. This is the first time EMGI took continuing education students to Africa.

The course, "Tanzania: The Geology and Ecology of the East African Rift System," filled up within 10 days after it was offered.

Dr. Diane Brownlee, director of EMGI, helped coordinate the trip. The students on the trip were professionals from different fields of work that needed professional recertification to continue working.

Dr. Naresh Kumar, petroleum geologist, taught the course which focused on how to maintain balance between conserving and developing natural resources in the African Rift Valley.

Kumar said he wanted to share his experience of his first visit to Tanzania with other people. He spoke with Brownlee who helped put the innovative trip together.

"I wanted the students to understand that the Earth is a complex system," Kumar said.

The students experienced the culture, history and wildlife. The class visited Lake Manyara National Park, Lake Natron and Ngorongoro Crater. The students stayed in several hotels some of which were tree house lodges.

"They stayed in tree house accommodations in the Serengeti Desert where there are more animals than there are people, so they chose that for safety reasons and that way they could view the scenery and see animals grazing," Brownlee said. "They did this largely because they wanted to leave a small footprint on the ground, so ecologically this was a wise choice."

Students had opportunities to meet and interact with native people. The cultural part of the course focused on how natives have reacted to urbanization and land that for centuries belonged to their tribes and then taken away to form a world heritage site.

Brownlee said she had several requests for another class to Tanzania. She said she has no plans to have another trip because it's hard to find a professional who can pull away from the industry and teach the class. Brownlee said she hopes to offer a class in 2008.

"I have several other geoscientists who are talking with us about offering trips in the future," Brownlee said. "Some of the trips may be to look at the geology of Alaska, or perhaps to study the over thrustbelt in Montana and Idaho or to study the interior mountain basins in California."

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