Special Scholarships

Rutgers: Summer- Ecuador: Sustainable Communities and Backpacking Expedition

Ecuador

Program Overview

Term Start Date End Date Application Deadline
Summer 2025
Jul 29, 2025
Aug 09, 2025
Mar 01, 2025
Language(s) of Instruction
English
No
No
No
Class Standing
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
Good academic standing
Credits

3

Program Advisor
Lloyd Pearson

The Program

The Ecuador program immerses students in sustainable living practices through engagement with the Quechua community, where they will be learning about traditional farming methods and environmental stewardship. The program participants will embark on a camping and backpacking expedition hiking a beautiful trail on a mountain in Imbabura.

 

Ecuador

Program Locations

Ecuador

Pifo

Located in the Pichincha province of Ecuador, Pifo is a small town that offers a unique blend of natural beauty and cultural experiences. Pifo is surrounded by lush landscapes and stunning views of the Andean mountains.

 

Academics

The Ecuador program immerses students in sustainable living practices through engagement with the Quechua indigenous community, where they will be learning about traditional farming methods and environmental stewardship. The program participants will embark on a camping and backpacking expedition hiking on a mountain in Imbabura. By the end of the program, students will gain a greater sense of self-identity and community values through team exercises, community-engaged learning projects, and reflection assignments. By engaging the landscape as a living laboratory, experiential learning projects, and small group activities, students will develop a deeper, more mindful, and globally focused understanding of social change theory and practice. Primary Learning Outcomes -Gain a greater understanding of personal and professional values through coursework, sustainable development exercises, community engaged learning projects, reflection writing and video blogs. -Engage the urban environment as a living laboratory through experiential learning and small group activities. -Adapt theoretical and practical leadership strategies used to create change in the global landscape. -Participate in mutual sharing and unstructured intra-cultural dialogue that prepares students to cross boundaries of difference. The Ecuador program is a high-impact, short-term field study designed to immerse students in the ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic complexities of the Andean and Amazonian regions. Located in the mountainous regions in Ecuador, the program strategically combines cultural and eco-immersion with opportunities to live alongside the Quechua community, participate in an outdoor expedition, and learn the traditional ecological knowledge of the Ecuadorian landscape. Through the integration of course readings, classroom discussions, lectures and community-engaged learning projects, this dynamic field-study challenges participants to broaden their theoretical and practical understanding of community, nonprofit and public organizations committed to sustainable living, education, public health and community wellness.

Meals

Communal cooking of delicious wholesome meals over a wood fire is an important part the experience. Students take turns gathering ingredients from the farm, garden and the forest, cooking, cleaning and tending the fire. Most meals are vegetarian, and we work to eat meat we have a relationship with: fish that we catch, chickens from our farm, or meat that is raised at local farms. While many ingredients are grown at camp and on local family farms, we also purchase local and/or organically grown products as they are available. We emphasize three nourishing meals per day and provide snacks in between as needed.

Faculty Leaders

Clayton Walton

Clayton L. Walton has spent the last 19 years designing student development initiatives that challenge participants to intentionally engage their college experience. As the Executive Director of Globally Engaged Experiential Learning and Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs and Administration, Clayton promotes a holistic student development philosophy that informs the design and implementation of his coursework, study away programs and co-curricular initiatives.