The Art of the Overnight

by Ben Casteel -- 

Lemurs are the world’s most endangered mammal.  All species of lemur come from one large, isolated island – Madagascar; however, you don’t have to necessarily travel across the globe to see these fascinating creatures.  At this moment, you may be wondering what lemurs could possibly have in common with the training and development of our agriculture workforce.  Actually, there is a lot to learn about lemurs and agriculture, but today we will be examining how the engagement of students with these exotic animals is helping to close the gap in needed employability skills.

In last month’s AWT4CL blog post, we heard from esteemed colleague Heather Butler about Facilitating Field Trips and Guest Speaker Sessions for Effective Student Learning and how building in extra time in the planning phase helps to facilitate a truly great field trip.  Over the past few years, I have witnessed students gaining even deeper insight and opportunity for grasping the durable skill categories of communication, decision-making, professionalism, and leadership when the field trip is extended to overnight.  The overnight field trip is not easy or accessible, but when the opportunity presents itself, the impact on students cannot be overstated.  One such opportunity first came about for us in the fall of 2022 with a trip to the Duke Lemur Center (DLC) in Durham, North Carolina. 

Coquerel's Sifaka - Duke Lemur Center
The Coquerel’s sifaka is a leaf-eating lemur that (at the DLC) has found a preference for the foliage of the North American native winged sumac.  Unfortunately, sumac is often looked at as a weed rather than a crop; therefore, it is not typically found in the nursery trade and is not well-documented in terms of propagation.  One of our Biology professors heard about a community leaf gathering event around Durham for the leaves of the plant and asked if this were something we could involve students in.  While it didn’t make sense to try to gather leaves, it did begin our efforts of propagating the plants, some of which we already had growing on the campus at Virginia Highlands Community College.  Students in our horticulture and agriculture courses and club helped propagate the plants, and after shipping several batches bare-root, we were invited to come see the facilities and lemurs at the DLC! 

Durham is about 3.5 hours from campus, and a day trip was not practical, but student interest was high, so we made it work as an overnight trip.  With plenty to do in the area, we decided to make a whole weekend of the trip.  With support from the Collins Experiential Education Fund through our Foundation, we were able to provide the experience to students at no cost, except for the buy-in of lunch on our travel days.  Students were asked to form cook groups for each meal and shopped for ingredients with a given budget, keeping in mind dietary restrictions and preferences of the group.  This further instilled the decision-making and leadership process and helped the trip to run seamlessly.  They also chose the rest of the activities for the weekend, and we built in time for reflection.  The feedback from the first trip was so positive that we have now made a trip each semester.  Of the 13 students that went on the first trip, 10 have graduated and are now either gainfully employed or have transferred to another college or university.Do

Location: Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA

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