Stetson trustees, faculty and staff hosted 22 international students for this very American holiday!
Every year WORLD asks the Stetson community to host our international students for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. This year, 6 people signed up and hosted 22 students!
The students really enjoyed themselves as well as the hosts. A few comments the hosts shared with us were “I didn’t think I was going to have this much fun tonight!” and “Family gatherings are important to me. This is the first time I have felt this comfortable and good since arriving to Stetson this year.”
We are so grateful to our hosts who took the time to show our students what Thanksgiving means. The time spent together was special, and we are sure the parents of these students were grateful knowing their children were in a warm, welcoming environment!
International students stopped by WORLD on October 26 to sharpen their pumpkin-carving skills. See below for some of the creative faces. If you have any additional photos we can add, please send them to Liz Lew [email protected]
Two international students won Maris awards this year for their outstanding oral presentations. Congratulations to Shadia Muñoz-Najar ’23 from Peru and Evans Asuboah ’24 from Ghana!
Black Home Schoolers of Central Florida provides support for families who chose to home-school their children. They depend on donations to provide these essential services. Evans reviewed their website and realized they needed a modern, streamlined look, more intuitive navigation and increased speed. Many parents were complaining about how difficult it was to find information.
After much research, Evans used the insights to address the pain points and meet the evolving needs of the community. After 100 hours of writing over 5,000 lines of code, a new, refreshing website emerged. Evans tested his new website among users and it was clear by the feedback that he made drastic improvements.
Last but not least, everyone who tested the new website said they would donate to the organization! Check out the new website here: https://www.blackhomeschoolerscfl.com/
Meanwhile, Shadia tackled a perplexing Latin America resource “curse”: why do some countries with plenty of resources struggle with long-term economic growth? She examined several variables, such as resource dependence, economic inequality and political instability and their effects on different countries. Country policies and political management seemed to be a significant determinant.
Congratulations Shadia and Evans for winning a Maris Award for this excellent work. For those of you who don’t know, this award recognizes quality scholarship at the University’s Undergraduate Scholarship Day.
by Haleigh Ray, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
Stetson students and professors spent a glorious week in Costa Rica. We started out in the Monteverde region which included a visit to the Monteverde Orchid Garden and afterwards, a choice of zip-lining or suspension bridge trails!
After these activities, we made our way hiking back to San Gerardo Station, a very remote biological station in the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. We were the only group staying there, so everyone had a great opportunity to be fully surrounded by nature (no wifi at the station, either!)
During our time here, everyone did a lot of hiking (including a trail back to a waterfall), birdwatching (some students got up at 4:30 AM to go with our nature guide who was an Ornithologist), and small projects where the students were collecting field data. The station overlooked part of the cloud forest habitat, and had an amazing view of Arenal Volcano.
White-necked Puff bird
After three days at San Gerardo, we moved to the southwest coast of Costa Rica to a site called Hacienda Barú. Here they saw a lot more animal life, including sloths, coatis, monkeys, birds, and peccaries.
Capuchin Monkey, Coati and Red-eyed Stream Frog
While at Hacienda Barú, the lodge was located directly on the coast, so students were able to hike down to the beach and watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean.
By the end of the trip many students were saying that they had a new appreciation for tropical biodiversity and rainforest ecosystems, and had stronger views on conservation of these habitats. They felt that they were really able to connect with nature while in Costa Rica, and some of them even said that the experience was life-changing for them!
