Associate Professor David Brown and the Brock University students arriving in New Zealand.
This summer, tauira from Canada's Brock University attended Otago as part of their Summer School Abroad programme, 11 years after Brock's last visit to our shores.
Otago hosted 13 undergraduate students from Brock, who were accompanied by Associate Professor David Brown - a longstanding colleague and friend of many staff at Otago.
Professor Brent Lovelock, Head of Otago's Tourism Department says, “We were very happy to renew our Summer School Study Abroad relationship with Brock University. Dave is a great teacher and brings a wealth of experience on heritage management - so this gels extremely well with the heritage tourism expertise of our own Anna Carr and others in our department.
“The Brock students take their Summer School papers alongside Otago students, so it's a great opportunity for them to collaborate on assignments and to go on some awesome field trips together.”
Commenting on the programme's rewards and challenges, Associate Professor Brown says, “The long hiatus between visits was brought about by a combination of financial, administrative and COVID challenges. Ambitious programmes like this one are never easy to organise!
“This year we met all these challenges together. Our partners at Otago University and St Margaret's College were amazing - cheerfully dealing with all the extra administrative burdens, orientation duties, missing passports, complex fee transfers, diverse dietary requirements and special academic needs, while simultaneously welcoming us with warmth, grace, good humour and group receptions that exuded legendary Kiwi hospitality.”
Associate Professor Brown says the academic activities were very rewarding too, despite the compressed Summer School timelines. Anna Carr's Ecotourism and Sustainable Development paper took Canucks and Kiwis through explorations of a complex and often controversial industry where New Zealand leads the world, and afforded first-hand field interactions with the iconic wildlife species and ecotourism destinations for which Otago is renowned.
“Otago and Brock students were researching, exploring, and interpreting real-world natural and cultural heritage destinations in and around Dunedin, and creating thematic interpretive multimedia tours and guides accessible to locals and visitors alike.”
Associate Professor Brown says the programme was a wonderful reunion for faculty and staff, a chance to rekindle an exceptional set of institutional and interpersonal relationships, and a life-changing international experience for students that exemplifies the value of educational programmes like this one worldwide.
Watch the students' multimedia tours on the web.
Find out more about the Ecotourism and Sustainable Development paper.
-Kōrero by Sally Knox, Communications Adviser