Being in the middle of nowhere, with no way to contact those I left behind, created a space for growth. I found it both exhilarating and challenging—being disconnected from the world I was used to felt like flipping a coin. On one side was the thrill of living entirely in the moment, unattached to the steady ping of messages or the urgency of news. On the other side was the gnawing awareness that those I loved were still living their lives without me, and I couldn’t instantly be part of their moments or share my own. This experience, however, taught me something profound: there is beauty in this disconnection, a freedom that opens space for the unexpected and the new.
This past spring, students in our Patagonia and Botswana cohorts joined ongoing research initiatives with our partner organizations, contributing to fieldwork and data collection on topics ranging from elephant habitat preference to guanaco population trends.
Explore their capstone research projects here!
By: Logan Weems
Throughout the last week, the Round River Mongolia crew hopped in the Furgon (and the Delica) and drove across the steppe to 85 plots, measuring indicators like grass height and vegetation cover in order to observe how these pika populations were responding to environmental pressures they are facing.
By: Jacob Baldner, University of Montana
These city days were fast-moving and fascinating, but by the end, we were raring to get out and begin our two-day journey to the Darhad Valley… On the way out of the city, we began to see the Mongolia we heard about during our first couple of lectures in the city.
By: Abel Murphy, University of Vermont
Hike a transect with Abel in the stunning Chacabuco Valley of Patagonia National Park, surveying for guanaco, a camelid closely related to llamas.
By: Liz Moty, University of Vermont
Hear from Liz as she reflects on what her semester in Patagonia has taught her about conducting fieldwork and living abroad.