Six Fairhaven students awarded the Adventure Learning Grant, a $25,000 stipend to study abroad

This year, six students from Western’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies were awarded the David T. Mason Adventure Learning Grant, a $25,000 stipend designed to enrich their education through travel abroad, with a focus on the intellectual risk, challenge, discomfort and adventure that come with that experience. 

The applicants each proposed a project that features extended experiences with cultures outside of the United States and a plan to integrate those experiences into their studies at Fairhaven. The grant recipients will each spend 10 months abroad working on their projects beginning this fall. 

This year’s recipients, who will travel all over the globe working on a variety of projects are: 

• Syd Carver, “Practicing Alternatives to Extractivism,” Boliva and Peru.
• Rowan Casselman, “Eco-ableism and Land Conservation,” Ecuador, Panama and Uruguay.
• Theo Davis, “Learning Beyond the West: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Alternative Education in East Asia,” Japan and South Korea.
• Mae Eifert, “Listening Across Borders: Women’s Lived Experiences of Maternal Health,” Ecuador and Peru.
• Sky Grumbles, “Understanding and Building Community Resilience Through Food Sovereignty,” Columbia and Chile.
• Georgia Marere, “Indigenous Culture and Sovereignty in Oceania: Preservation and Revitalization in Relation to French Colonialism,” French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Peter Pihos, dean of Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, said that the student experiences supported by the Adventure Learning Grant are an asset to the whole Fairhaven community, not just to the student who studies abroad. 

“The Adventure Learning Grant reflects Fairhaven College’s commitment to transformative, inquiry-based learning. It provides students with an unmatched opportunity to use the world as their classroom,” Pihos said. “ALG recipients respectfully engage cultures distinctive from their own, collaborate with community partners on meaningful work and develop skills for life-long learning outside of a classroom setting. Their experiences benefit the whole Fairhaven community, as they introduce new perspectives, ideas, and skills to the rest of us during their remaining time at the College.” 

Mae Eifert, a second-year student from Wenatchee, said the Adventure Learning Grant is an important opportunity for her.  

“It’s allowing me to go places and do things I would never have otherwise been able to go and do!” Eifert said. “In the past year, I’ve narrowed and refined my studies to ‘Reproductive Well-being as Public Health’ with an emphasis on birth and maternity health. I will spend all 10 months in Peru and Ecuador, countries I chose based on their Indigenous and non-Western practices in the areas of birth and maternal health.” 

The Adventure Learning Grant is competitive and requires students to understand the importance of learning respectfully from the people and cultures they visit. Other selection criteria for student proposals include the project’s creativity and ingenuity, the likelihood the project will challenge the student’s perspectives and expose them to cultures that are different from those with which they are intimately familiar, and more. 

During their time abroad, students must commit to participating in a program of regular communication with Fairhaven College so that other students can learn about and share in their experiences. 

Making new connections is important to recipient Rowan Casselman, a junior from Seattle. 

“I plan to visit Ecuador, Panama and Uruguay to explore how ableism and extractivism intersect within broader contexts of oppression and values. I’m excited for the opportunity to learn about concepts not often connected, from countries not often considered,” said Casselman.  

Recipient Syd Carver said the grant is an incredible opportunity to immerse herself in different languages, cultures, ecologies and peoples in order to build relationships and explore her own role in the world. 

“My project is focused on learning from different worldviews, lifeways and networks rooted in care for the wellbeing of land and community, particularly in the Amazon and Andes regions of Bolivia and Peru. I hope this will provide insight into what alternatives are possible to dominating global power structures and mindsets based in exploitation of land and people,” Carver said. 

The Adventure Learning Grant is designed to help students embrace challenge and adventure as integral to a Fairhaven College education. Past recipients of the grant have traveled to Turkey, Spain, Morocco, Mexico, Bolivia, Singapore, Portugal, Ireland, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and elsewhere.

Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman, assistant professor at Fairhaven College, directed the grant program this year and noted that past student projects demonstrate impressive range.

“In recent years, one student surfed in Ghana to work through and remember the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” Sniderman said. “Another journeyed to the small Turkish city from which his Armenian ancestors were ethnically cleansed a century before. Another cast unbisqued plates, designed by children, for a tenuous dinner meeting between the curators of Jatiwangi Art Factory and visiting real estate hegemons in Indonesia. Another co-started a kayaking school for Indigenous youth on the Napo River in Ecuador where learning how to move on the river provides essential sites from which to witness and record illegal violations of their traditional land and water by mining companies.”

Learn more about Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies here. 

Allie Spikes covers the WWU Graduate School and Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies for University Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at spikesa@wwu.edu.