News
‘Tropical Agriculture and Missions’ Course Gets New Look
Feb 16, 2011
Students in our popular ‘Tropical Agriculture and Missions’ course will be stepping off the plane into a different tropical environment this year. After holding the course at the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) in South Florida for the past eight years, this year’s course will be taught in Costa Rica at the field station of the Association for Development through Education (ADE), a Christian organization devoted to capacity building in post-disaster regions and marginalized communities through education initiatives. While many of the topics covered through the course will be the same, its new location creates the opportunity to enhance the field component of the course by allowing students to directly observe, interact with, and learn from local farmers, development workers, and missionaries.
The Tropical Agriculture and Missions course is one of a number of distinctive courses that Au Sable offers to provide life-changing learning opportunities that supplement the curriculum at our participating colleges. The tropical agriculture course in particular serves a diverse array of students in science, international development, medicine, and missions programs from our participating colleges. Students from a wide variety of interests and backgrounds bring different learning perspectives and motivations that enhance the course for all involved.
As Executive Director Martin Price acknowledges, “The tropical agriculture course is an eye opener for many students to see how agriculture and missions bring together so many areas of their interest and training; areas where urgent human, environmental and spiritual needs converge.”
The course itself focuses on working with resource-poor farmers. Topics include the scientific basis behind successful low cost agricultural techniques, a survey of major tropical crops and their requirements, agroforestry, urban gardening, small animal care, and issues in Christian missions and community development.
For more information about the course, check out our course information page.