This last month as been PACKED at ISDSI.

The students finished up their course on sustainable food systems and agroecology, and are now mid-course on the political ecology of forests course.  Currently both groups are up in the mountains of Mae Hong Son Province, living with and learning from the Karen villagers.

For the instructors, they’ve been all over the world.

Last month Ajaan Laura and Ajaan Abram went to India to present and participate in a conference / workshop on sustainable agriculture and sustainable development with ECHO Asia, including local and international grassroots NGO partners.

Then, Mark and Ben went to the US to present workshops at two conferences, one at the AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) in Denver, and the Wilderness Risk Management Conference in Colorado Springs.  At the AASHE Conference they taught a workshop on Experiential Learning and Sustainability (read more about it here) and at the WRMC they taught a workshop on International Risk Management (learn more here).  Great conferences, good visits with alumni, faculty, and prospective students.  Even with meetings every single day (including the days we flew in and out!) we managed to sneak in a couple of brief hikes up into the mountains, so it was a great trip.

Snow on the mountains in October? We must not be in Chiang Mai...

Ben barely arrived back in Chiang Mai before going down south with Pi Am and Pi Pui to check the logistics for our Oceans course that starts in a month.  We’re combining the best of the former Islands and Coastal courses (hence “Oceans”), and we need to check in with the village homestays, and confirm the logistics for the islands section of the course. Moving 30+ students, instructors, sea kayaks, and all the associated gear (snorkels, fins, tents, etc.) around Southern Thailand by train, truck and boat can be complex!

Ben, Pui and Am flew back the Chiang Mai, paused for about a day, and picked up Aaron and Ajaan Abram and left for Laos!  They are there now, and are setting up an incredible addition to the Spring Semester course on Rivers.  Rivers and trans-boundary issues are critical to resource management and sustainability in Southeast Asia, and we are now, after several years of planning, able to make the Mekong River a bigger component of the course.

They get back, and next week Ben and Mark fly to Sydney Australia for 4 days of training (see cfcnx.com to learn what we’re up to)… and get back in time to greet the students for the set up and start of Oceans!

Fun!

Sea kayaks and our support boat in Trang.

Good leadership is important, and helping students develop leadership skills is a key part of what we do at ISDSI.We worked with NOLS to tailor their leadership curriculum for our programs in Thailand, and have found their approach to leadership development to be excellent (see NOLS, Expedition Leadership for more).  We worked with NOLS in the development of our Expedition Field Courses, and have found their approach to leadership to work well in a very different context than wilderness expeditions.

NOLS defines leadership as follows: Expedition leadership means timely, appropriate actions that guide and support your group to set and achieve realistic goals. Great leaders create an environment that inspires individuals and groups to achieve their full potential.

Leadership on an ISDSI course is different than what most students are used to in an expedition setting.  Unlike leading in a wilderness setting, with an Expedition Field Course there are often more constraints.  We can’t just camp anywhere, but have to get to a particular village by nightfall.  We work with local guides, rather than just navigating by topographic map and compass/GPS. These constraints can make the leadership seem superficially more limited (not as many choices), but in reality, it makes it much more realistic and challenging.

In the real world, you are rarely in a situation where you have unlimited choices as a leader.  Even in the wilderness, your choices are constrained by the fitness of the group, the terrain, weather, and sometimes the permitting system for wildlands management. On ISDSI courses we add to that constraints based on logistics (we have to get to a particular village on a particular day), as well as cultural and social components (working with local experts and village teachers).We also have the constraint that we have certain academic objectives for the course (studying a particular watershed, local community, or farming technique).

Each day students are “leader of the day” and join the instructor team is setting goals for the group, and creating the environment where the group can achieve its potential. We have found that when students focus only on the limitations imposed by the constraints (what they “can’t do”) they often struggle with leadership — thinking isn’t “real” if they can’t really fundamentally change the course and decide to do something completely different than what the course objectives are. Of course, even on a NOLS course there are constraints, and in the real world, you face those constraints all the time.

When students embrace the constraints, however, it is magic. Rather than seeing working with local guides on a hike through a forest as a limit it becomes an opportunity –  the guides become companions and resource people. Embracing the constraints of leadership in the real world helps students realize that their “timely, appropriate actions” really do matter in how the group they are leading is able to function and thrive. Some days have fewer constraints (when to leave the beach while sea kayaking) some have more (a meeting with villagers after a hike studying ethnobotany with village elders, or a travel day).  The best student leaders bring out the best in their groups, and can take an otherwise boring day of transport out to the expedition start into an exciting day to study the local countryside and team building. That is leadership that “inspires individuals and groups to achieve their full potential!”

Everything was so natural and beautiful. True wilderness. We saw whales, including an orca that came right up to our kayaks, sea otters every day, sea lions, and fished and ate salmon! We camped next to a glacier and could hear the icebergs calving off. During the backpack section we camped on snow (my first time!).

There were so many mosquitoes they flew into our mouths. More mosquitoes than we have in Thailand!

I learned about how to pack my backpack well, good hiking technique, Leave No Trace, bomb proof camping, sea kayaking skills, navigation, and lots of other things. It was amazing to go to the other side of the world and see things I’ve never seen before!

AND the water was a LOT colder than here in Thailand where I usually sea kayak!!

-Pui

I spent time at University of Denver, Kalamazoo College, friends’ houses, and had a lot of fun.

I saw my first snow at my friend Amanda’s house, and made a snowman on their deck. It was really cold.  We also traveled in the mountains, and went to the circus, skydiving, and lots of things.  After that I went to Lander, Wyoming, and did a NOLS course as well an internship at their Rock Mountain Branch. The course I did was the Wind River Wilderness for 30 days. I learned a lot about American culture! Different than Karen culture! I did my presentation about herbal medicine in Thailand while other people did presentations on the American wilderness. We did Leave No Trace and lots of backpacking.

It was a great course.

-Toto