Beginning in the summer of 2017, York University students will be invited to participate in the Las Nubes Semester Abroad program in Costa Rica, which runs at York’s new EcoCampus in the southern Pacific region of the country.
Earlier this year, on April 25, York celebrated the official opening of the Lillian Meighen Wright Centre (LMWC), the landmark building of York’s EcoCampus.
“The EcoCampus is part of a biological corridor that contains seven communities and some 2,000 people,” said Felipe Montoya, director, Las Nubes Project. “It’s a community-based conservation initiative that York is part of.”
The Las Nubes Semester Abroad is an interdisciplinary program, covering everything from the arts to the sciences, which will bring students face-to-face with the complexity and richness of tropical ecosystems and communities. Comprising courses in environmental arts, ecosystems and health, conservation and development, Indigenous studies and the management of parks and protected areas, it offers students a more profound and engaged understanding of the diversity of ways humans interact with ecosystems.
Run by the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), Las Nubes is an experiential education program designed in an intensive format where students can take one or several courses. A whole semester, for instance, can be completed in just four or five weeks, said Ravi de Costa, associate professor, FES.
“It’s one thing to learn about ecology in the classroom, but to see these dynamics and processes in an ecosystem that houses five per cent of the world’s biodiversity is an unmatchable experience,” said BES student Kumail Raza.
Six courses will be offered through May and June 2017, including:
- Environmental Arts and Food Sovereignty;
- Conservation and Development;
- Globalization and Indigenous Peoples;
- Natural History;
- Environment and Health; and
- Protected Area Management.
Courses are open to all third- and fourth-year undergraduate students at York, as well as all York graduate students.
More information about costs, program timing and enrolment will be available at the upcoming information sessions:
- Tuesday, Oct. 11, from 12:30 to 1:30pm at 141 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building (HNES); and
- Thursday, Nov. 10, from 12:30 to 1:30pm at HNES 141.
Visit lasnubes.info.yorku.ca regularly for more information and updates, or email lasnubes@yorku.ca.
The Las Nubes Semester Abroad program is generously supported by the York University Academic Innovation Fund.