University of Toronto Mississauga
AC-5: Immersive Experience

1. ENV397Y0 Special Topics Field Course: Costa Rica: A Living Laboratory for Sustainability in Practice:
Monday, July 3 to Saturday, July 29, 2023 (4 weeks)

This will be the first year that the University of Toronto will offer a summer course in Costa Rica. Students will earn a full year credit in three weeks while living and learning in Costa Rica. During this course, students will explore concrete sustainability initiatives in Costa Rica related to education, environmental ethics, food production, forest conservation, and energy.
Students will also learn about the history and geography of Costa Rica that relate to the course, including the history of colonization, the sustainability issues in San José (the capital of Costa Rica), and the challenges faced in terms of migration, poverty, democracy, and transportation. By exploring these topics through field trips and group discussions, students will gain insights into how more just, sustainable, and peaceful societies might be created in practice.
The course will include a variety of field trips and travel within the country, including trips to a local Indigenous community, a permaculture farm, national parks (including the Monteverde cloud forest), and a school practicing sustainability education.

Classes will typically take place Monday to Friday from 9am to 1pm with field trips and activities planned both during class time and outside of class time.

This course will be taught by U of T Faculty:
Instructor
Mark Hathaway holds a doctorate in environmental studies and adult education from the University of Toronto. His research focusses on sustainability education, environmental ethics, and sustainable food production. Dr. Hathaway has extensive experience working in Latin America and teaches courses at the University of Toronto and the Earth Charter Center for Education for Sustainable Development in Costa Rica.

Prerequisites: none

2. ENV395Y0 Special Topics Field Course: Ecology and Conservation in the Amazon, Andes and Cloud Forest:
Thursday, May 4 Friday, June 2, 2023 (4 weeks)

This is the 17th year of the Summer Abroad program in Ecuador. This course examines fundamental concepts in ecology, evolution, biodiversity, geology and conservation biology through lectures and fieldwork in the highland, montane, and tropical ecosystems in Ecuador. The complex relations between these environments and the people who depend on them will also be examined through analysis of the social, cultural, and economic transformations that have taken place in recent years.

The program is hosted by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), and will use its Quito campus as well as their research centre, the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (TBS), located in the Amazon rainforest. USFQ has been collaborating with partner universities from around the world for many years, sharing their faculty's expertise and research knowledge to run successful programs for local and foreign students.

The course begins with one week of virtual classes introducing students to Ecuador and the various sites they will be exploring.
The 2nd - 4th weeks of the program take place in Ecuador. Students begin in Quito with orientations, lectures, and visits to old Quito and Mitad del Mundo (the Equator).
They will then spend several days in the Andes highlands studying its unique flora and fauna, hiking around two active volcanoes, and examining the economy and culture of the indigenous mountain peoples.
Next, students visit the cloud forest in the Mindo area to study tropical montane ecology, the water cycle, and the unique flora and fauna of the Andean cloud forest.
The final course segment consists of eight days at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, situated along one of the headwaters of the Amazon River, in one of the few remaining pristine rainforests in Ecuador. Here students will focus on tropical forest ecology and the impacts of oil exploration on wildlife and indigenous peoples.
The program concludes in Quito with cultural activities, a cooking class, a visit to the traditional market at Otovalo and a farewell dinner.

This course will be taught by U of T Faculty, in partnership with USFQ:
Instructors
Christoph Richter is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Department of Biology at University of Toronto Mississauga, where he teaches courses on biodiversity, ecology, marine mammal biology and the historical and ecological impacts of the Columbian exchange.

Monika Havelka is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream and Director of the Programs in Environment in the Department of Geography, Geomatics & Environment at UTM. She teaches courses in environmental science, experimental design, and restoration ecology.

Prerequisites: none


3. CAR332Y0 Puerto Rican Culture and Environment:
Saturday, May 20 to Friday, June 16, 2023 (4 weeks)

This will be the second year that the University of Toronto will offer a summer course in Puerto Rico.
Based on readings, lectures, experiential activities and discussions, this course will examine the cultural and environmental history of Puerto Rico. The course will explore debates on colonialism, capitalist modernity, development, ecosystems, religion, race and politics. Such analysis will help with the consideration of Puerto Rico as the last colony of the Americas within the larger context of the Caribbean. The course will include on-site excursions related to the lectures and reading material covered.

Field trips, which are designed to complement the course readings, will include visits to the San Juan (Puerto Rico Museum of Modern Arts, San Juan Bay National Estuary, Old San Juan tour), a day trip to Adjuntas to visit Casa Pueblo (community-based environmental organization) and La Olimpia Forest School.

Other activities include:
Visits to select local historical sites such as the El Morro and San Cristóbal forts and the El Yunque Rainforest

Participation in the San Juan Bay National Estuary ecological restoration projects

Visits to Casa Pueblo and La Olimpia Forest School to learn about their award-winning renewable energy and conservation initiatives


This course will be taught by U of T Faculty:
Instructor
Dr. Conrad James is an associate professor in Comparative Literature and Interim Director for the Centre of Caribbean Studies.

4. MGT396Y0 Special Topics: Inclusive Consulting with Micro-Enterprises (South Africa Cape Town)
Wednesday, May 10 to Monday, May 29, 2023* (3 weeks)

This program has a focus on the social pillar of Sustainability.

The program will be run in partnership with Reciprocity, a South-African-based consultancy. Reciprocity’s “Inclusive Consulting” program aims to provide students with business knowledge and field experience in emerging markets. Through a consulting mission with a township entrepreneur, students, organized in small teams, will gain a better understanding of doing business in low-income communities and the entrepreneurs will benefit from the business knowledge of the students.

The course has two main objectives:

- Develop an understanding of one of the increasingly important emerging national economies, i.e. South Africa, which continues to face and address important social and economic challenges, and

- Demonstrate the vitality of the socio-economic innovations in the townships by consulting with micro-entrepreneurs there.

Instructors:
Ann Armstrong, PhD, has had a long connection with the Rotman School of Management, both as a student and faculty member. Her PhD is in organizational behaviour. Ann has particular interest in change management and sustainability. Her research focuses on social enterprises as agents of change.

Tapfuma Musewe is a trade and investment executive with expertise in connecting African markets and other regions of the world. Having grown up a Canadian citizen, his passion led him to spend most of his working life across Africa including 10 years in South Africa.

Prerequisites: None

5. JEG400Y5 Geography/Environment Science Internship- Work placements for senior students in the science and social science streams of geography and environment

Course Experience: Partnership-Based Experience

Through a part-time, unpaid work placement, students apply the natural science-based environmental science/physical geography expertise gained through previous course work. Placements are made at local conservation authorities, municipalities, environmental consulting companies, corporations, provincial or federal agencies, and other organizations.

The placement requires a volunteer (unpaid) work commitment of 200 hours. This is equivalent to approximately one day per week for the school year.

Application Process: Students must submit a Statement of Interest, Resume, Course List and Academic Record to be considered.


About the Geography, Geomatics, and Environment Program
** Studying GGE provides students with the interdisciplinary training to address some of the world's most pressing social and environmental issues. From understanding the natural world and evolving physical processes, to globalization, transportation, climate change and more.

Link to the JEG400Y5 Geography/Environment Science Internship:

https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/geography/undergraduate/courses/jeg400