Kelly McFadden Helps Solve Water Issues in Guatemala
ONEONTA, NY (07/28/2015)(readMedia)– Kelly McFadden of Pawling, NY, traveled to Guatemala this summer for a unique environmental science course combining field research, problem-solving and service learning–plus a chance to climb an 8,000-foot active volcano.
A total of 21 SUNY Oneonta students took the field course, “Water and the Environment of Guatemala,” taught by Dr. Tracy Allen, associate professor of geography and environmental sciences, and Dr. Devin Castendyk, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences.
During the two-week trip, McFadden toured water and wastewater treatment plants and conducted water sampling in and around Lake Atitlan, a 327-meter-deep lake that is becoming increasingly unhealthy as the area’s population increases and issues of sanitation and pollution are not addressed.
Now in its second year, the course offers the opportunity to build relationships and create community-based solutions that could be implemented by the local Mayan residents to clean up the lake.
“It’s using the word ‘sustainability’ in a different way,” said Allen. “We’re not a flash in the pan. We want to help over a long period of time. For students, this is a living laboratory. They get to learn unbelievable things, applying their skills to a real-world water problem. And they get to make a difference.”
To help educate and empower the local Mayans, the students prepared and presented fun, hands-on lessons teaching local schoolchildren about water-quality issues.The course curriculum also included a tour of a successful community-run, organic coffee plantation and an aquaculture project, where McFadden worked with families in poor villages to find sustainable ways to add oxygen to the water in their tilapia tanks, improving the health of the fish.
Two Guatemalan graduate students helped with the research and shared their culture with the Oneonta students. Between fieldwork and interactions with the local Mayans, there was time for sightseeing. A highlight was hiking the Pacaya volcano, an active complex volcano that rises to an elevation of 8,373 feet and erupted as recently as a year ago.
A liberal arts institution with a strong focus on undergraduate research, SUNY Oneonta consistently gains recognition for delivering excellence and value. The college has been named to Kiplinger’s list of “100 Best Values in Public Colleges” for nine consecutive years and sits at No. 9 on the 2015 U.S. News and World Report list of the best public institutions in the region. SUNY Oneonta enrolls 6,000 students in its 70 undergraduate majors and 14 graduate programs.
Photo: Hiking the 8,373-foot Pacaya Volcano
