Giltz, DeLauder & McCullough International Travel Award

Growing up, I loved playing “teacher” with my stuffed animals and creating lesson plans for the day. After taking a few Education courses at St. Lawrence, I realized that education was one of my biggest passions. In specific, I am very interested in education for girls. Before coming to St. Lawrence University, I attended the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem.

This past semester, I traveled abroad and spent four months in Townsville, Australia. During my semester abroad, I was able to develop a unique insight on the process and components of ecotourism in the city of Cairns, Australia. Cairns is a major tourist destination located in tropical North Queensland. Being an environmental studies major, I have taken numerous classes aimed at understanding the role that tourism has on the environment, both negatively and positively.

Dear London,

You are one of the world’s most visited and populated cities. You are a cultural mecca; home to famous museums, art galleries and you are the place where cultures untie. It was always one of my dreams to visit you, and thanks to the Giltz, DeLauder & McCullough families that I was able to see you and get to know you better.

I studied abroad in Costa Rica for the spring semester of 2016. I always enjoyed hiking and even spent a few years living in Bar Harbor, Maine where a national park was practically my backyard. I was thrilled to explore Costa Rica’s rainforests, coasts, and all the outdoor activities the country had to offer. The fall before I went abroad I took the Global Studies course Global/Local Environmentalism. The course critically analyzed conservation and preservation efforts by looking at both the impact on the environment and local communities.

Before this opportunity I had never been to Europe, and I always wanted the chance to explore it’s many countries and their rich collections of art. I wanted above all other places, while abroad last spring, to visit Rome, which posesses works and pieces by some of my favorite artists throughout history. Thanks to the generous travel grant offered to me, I found myself visiting the Vatican Museums and the Borghese Gallery, while also wandering the streets walking into churches and coming across famous landmarks.

I studied in Dunedin, New Zealand at the University of Otago during the spring of 2017. For my enrichment grant I was lucky enough to travel from Dunedin to Wellington (the nation’s capitol). The four days that I was there I was able to jam-pack some major sight seeing!

The purpose of this grant was to explore the differences in the healthcare system between some European countries and the United States. Even though the United States is renowned for its role in spearheading biomedical research using cutting-edge technology and highly specialized hospitals, equitable healthcare delivery and access to it is still a problem. Therefore, I wanted to explore differences based on these three main questions:

•           Is the US healthcare system worse than in these European countries?

In the Spring of 2017, while studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, I was given the opportunity to embark on a culinary tour of Italy. My Enrichment Grant made it possible for me to see both Rome and Florence, Italy, while experiencing incredible Mediterranean cuisine every step of the way. I originally applied for such a grant because Italy is a cultural and culinary epicenter, and I didn’t feel my time abroad would be complete without experiencing it!

Wow! New Zealand was an absolute blast! If you’re reading this trying to get inspiration to study abroad or for your own enrichment grant proposal, I hope it gives you some. As a geo major and outdoor studies minor, I hoped to utilize my time in New Zealand to apply my academic disciplines to my personal hobbies in an entirely different place. While I found myself on many hikes and backpacking trips during my time in New Zealand, I had one particular trek on my bucket list – The Milford Track.

Towards the end of my six month stay in Australia for study abroad, I was fortunate enough to take a week-long trip to Tokyo, Japan purely to experience, appreciate, and learn from the sights and sounds, as well as Japanese urban culture.  I am a local student, and until my trip to Australia and Japan I had only ever traveled within the Eastern U.S.

Ever since I started learning French in high school, I have been fascinated with the Francophone world and how languages shape our identities. During my time at St. Lawrence, I have taken several courses that have covered colonialism, cultural identities, and power structures. I studied abroad on the Global Francophone program in 2016 which inspired me to continue learning about the Francophone world and return to France for spring 2018.

At the beginning of my sophomore year at St. Lawrence, I learned that I was accepted to study in Bordeaux, France for the following spring semester. I was thrilled; French language and culture have been an important part of my identity for nearly 10 years, and although I had been to France before, I had never spent such a long period of time living in the country. I knew that I wanted to come up with a travel enrichment grant that would further my knowledge of the country as whole. I also wanted to do something that would complement my government major and French minor.

While studying abroad in Jordan, I visited the Roman Citadel and Amphitheater in
Amman as part of the AmidEast Program. In addition, I traveled to the city of Jerash to see
Hadrian’s Arch, the Temple of Artemis, the Oval Plaza, the Hippodrome, the South Theater, and
Nymphaeum. After visiting Jerash, I traveled to Ajloun Castle, a fortress used during the
Crusades. Finally, I visited St. George’s Church, a Greek Orthodox Church located in Madaba.
During these excursions in my host country, I observed Greco-Roman structures and their

When I found out that I would be going to Austria for the semester, I was thrilled. I have been to Europe before as I have spent time visiting my family in the Netherlands and I had the opportunity to participate in the London FYP where I went on a personal trip to the Czech Republic. However, this has been the limit of my experiences. Knowing that Austria is centrally located in Europe, I was excited to explore the surrounding countries and fill my time with satisfying my interests in history.

In May 2019, I received a travel grant for my Fall 2019 semester abroad in London, England. My proposal is about “explore the history and art in Paris and Madrid” during the mid-semester break. However, I only went to Paris to finish my project because there was a huge protest happening in Spain that advocated for the independence of Catalonian. I did not want to take risks of the protest. Thus, all of my focus is on history and art in Paris, France. I believe the four days that I spent in Paris was one of the best experiences I have ever had.

When I applied for the St. Lawrence University Travel Enrichment Grant, I was doubtful that the school would be willing to support my endeavor. Previous recipients of the grant had immersed themselves in research; this is not what I wanted to do. My project was simple, but unconventional: I wanted to go to Scotland to write. I would be studying abroad in London during Fall 2019, and planned for the trip to take place mid-October when the stream of tourists had slowed to a trickle. Thankfully, St.

I was born and raised in Mexico City, a concrete jungle. Being in New Zealand for a semester is a dream for any outdoors and nature lover. As an Economics and Environmental Studies double major and Statistics minor, my time abroad gave me the opportunity to see how these disciplines interconnect outside theory. Through my semester, I learned so much about endangered species, environmental management, grassroot movements, and indigenous environmental knowledge.  I am grateful for having the opportunity to enrich my abroad experience and share it with the SLU community. 

“When Culture Meets Science: Exploring The Concept of Terroir in Bordeaux.”

My name is Paul-Hudson Erwin, I am in the class of 2021 at St. Lawrence University and I am majoring in Global Studies while minoring in European Studies and Francophone Studies. I am from the small town of Cornwall, NY – about an hour north of New York City – and I was fortunate to receive funding for my travel enrichment grant from Rod Giltz, who himself graduated SLU in 1959. My travel enrichment grant took place during my study abroad in Bordeaux, France in the Spring 2019 semester.

When I found out that I was going to be going to Sorrento, Italy, I was thrilled. I was finally able to explore a region of the world that had interested me so much ever since I was a little kid. Now, I would be able to spend 4 months there.

In my environmental studies and economics classes at SLU I have always been most interested in how globalization and recreational tourism impact cultures and economies. Outside of school, skiing has been my passion for as long as I can remember, and I have always wanted to visit Japan because it is known for having the best powder skiing in the world. After being accepted to study abroad in New Zealand for the spring 2020 semester it occurred to me that Japan was kind of, sort of on the way to New Zealand (It turned out it was still a ten-hour flight).

I had the opportunity to study abroad in Cairns, Australia for the start of the spring 2020 semester. While there, I had hoped to explore a number of the incredible national parks throughout the continent. While corona cut the semester short and kept me closer to home, I still was fortunate enough to visit several national parks in Tropical North Queensland. My hope with this project was to explore sustainability infrastructures put in place to preserve the diverse natural landscape. I was inspired to do this project after spending my sophomore fall on the St. Lawrence Adirondack semester.