Hermosa Program

Fall 2005

Testimonials

• "It was the most amazing semester I could have ever hoped for." Alicia Rowe
• "I am confident that I will remember it as my favorite term at Furman." Heather Rowan
• " There is so much to say about the trip that one doesn't even know where to begin. I can try to sum it all up by saying it was amazing or even life-changing, but that doesn't do it justice or really tell you anything about the trip." Angel Cruz
• "The Hermosa program was truly excellent, and a fine example of Furman's commitment to engaged learning." Megan Pitman
• "I want to end by mentioning that before this program I was very unsure about pursuing Biology and even contemplating transferring from Furman. However, now I am actually excited about my upcoming years in Biology and at Furman." Angel Cruz
• "During my college years, my time at Hermosa will be one of the greatest influences on my future as a biologist. I have grown as a scholar and as a person as a result of my experience here." Annette Trierweiler
• "It has been the most incredible, moving, life-changing experience." Aubrie Smits
• "The engaged learning environment that Furman strives to accomplish is exemplified by this course." Chris Jones
• "On the whole, this trip has allowed me to experience very different environments, people, classes, and ways to live (the simplicity of Hermosa contrasted by the very urban, fast-paced complexity of Santa Fe)." Caroljane Roberson
• "Overall, the trip was an awesome success. The main concern, living with 10 other students in a relatively confined area for 3 months, actually turned out to be one of the strengths of the Hermosa program." Caroljane Roberson
• "There is not a better way in this world that I could have spent this fall. It has truly changed my life. I am a much more mature, patient, responsible, flexible, and environmental person because of this program." Claire Fairley
• "We were completely immersed in a learning atmosphere where even on weekends and almost all of the time we were learning something new, and surprisingly not complaining, but enjoying all of it." Megan Pitman
• "They say you forget 60 percent of everything you learn but I'm wondering if through living such an academic experience we can't beat the odds." Nathan Sermonis

• "The courses were thorough, understandable, and tied in well to each other. The lectures were some of the best I've ever had; the material was explained clearly and in an organized fashion. Dr. Perry made sure that we understood everything he was teaching before he would move on, and Dr. Thibault and Kate Ingram were awesome at giving lectures and with helping us understand everything we had gone over." Alicia Rowe
• "I have to say the most important factor was our great professors. They were always eager to pass on their knowledge, whether it is at 5:30 in the morning while watching the sunrise at a Wildlife Refuge or at 10 o'clock at night when I was struggling with an Ecology problem." Angel Cruz
• "Dr. Perry was as excited or even more excited than us about catching every snake and lizard we saw. I know the professors inspired each of us in many different ways. It became more and more obvious throughout the trip that they loved what they did." Angel Cruz
• "Knowing your professors makes it a lot easier to communicate with them, amazingly enough!" Claire Fairley
• "The learning intensive environment was great, but I think just a byproduct of the real strength of the academic aspects of the program: a well planned curriculum, very interesting field trips, guest speakers, and, perhaps most important of all, very good teaching." Megan Pitman
• "Our classroom adjacent to the hotel is an old western mercantile that looks like something straight out of a John Wayne film. The only thing missing is a showdown at high noon. In here we attended lectures and took notes on powerpoint presentations. Our learning in the mercantile was crucial to the courses but where the classroom stopped and life began is where our education really took place. We journeyed though mountains, deserts, creeks, marshes, prairies, and caves of the West led by very knowledgable, very motivated instructors who took every opportunity to teach us with hands on experience in the field." Nathan Sermonis

• "Academically, this term has been the best one I have had at Furman." Claire Fairley
• "I am sure I learned more in the last three months than I did all of last year at Furman. Like Furman, we had three lectures a day, but in reality we never stopped learning - class was twenty-four hours a day, whether we were sitting in lecture, driving across New Mexico listening to Dr. Perry tell us the ecological significance of the area, or just cooking dinner for everyone." Angel Cruz
• "I have learned more academically on this trip and in these courses than any other course I have taken in college. Dr. Perry's in depth teaching combined with in the field learning created an excellent learning environment." Sarah Galloway
• "The three courses that we took, Field Zoology, Natural Resource Management, and Ecology were very well paired courses because of the way they expanded on and enhanced each other, giving the feeling that we were really just taking one large, all inclusive biology field course." Megan Pitman
• "From the rabbit (who lived under a bush just outside the kitchen) to the pair of woodpeckers living in the tree in our backyard and countless Madrean alligator lizards and horned toads and kingsnakes. There was no better way to study Field Zoology than to live amongst such a diversity of Southwest fauna." Heather Rowan
• "I not only learned some new types of biology; I developed a passion for them. If Dr. Perry's amazing amount of enthusiasm does not get to you, his ability to teach certainly will. I soaked up the facts he taught us like a sponge and found myself recalling them on calls to home of friends with uncanny ability." Aubrie Smits"
• "Each class was enhanced and reinforced by the other classes, not necessarily by having overlapping coverage of material but rather through the application of the knowledge learned in one class to each of the other two classes. The greatest level of understanding of the material in each class will be achieved when they are taught together and the Environmental Biology semester is the only opportunity to do so. Chris Jones
• "I think when classes overlap with one another it's easier to get the big picture." Claire Fairley
• "Each of our three courses were greatly enhanced by the field setting. Field Zoology never ended as we always caught something new or found tracks or bones." Heather Rowan
• "Natural Resource Management was enriched with a wealth of perspectives from employees of all New Mexico's management agencies. We were permitted a rare view of the entire spectrum of views of resource managers and a chance to see how federal and state legislation is enacted on the ground. We were able to observe the successes and sometimes failings of state and federal agencies and think for ourselves how today's problems can be, if not solved, at least mitigated." Heather Rowan

• "The rugged setting, the historic buildings that once sheltered miners and cowboys and is now sheltering us, and the wildlife all around us made the living situation the best I could ask for." Alicia Rowe
• "We were originally fourteen people total, eleven students, two professors, and a teaching assistant, living in an isolated location without certain amenities such as television, internet access, and telephones, usually going at least a week at a time without seeing very many "outsiders" or visiting a town. Despite the fact that this sounds like a great recipe for a reality T.V. show, we would have sorely disappointed producers by getting along almost all of the time and each doing the jobs we were assigned every week." Megan Pitman
• "Besides learning in the classroom and in the field, I also learned on a daily basis important survival skills." Sarah Galloway
• "Besides the rigorous academic lessons, there were other lessons that we learned, more useful skills we need in life or as a competent field biologist. We learned life skills such as how to plan and cook for a lot of people, first aid, how to tie essential knots (bowline, double figure eight, bloodknot, bank robber hitch, visa versa, clove hitch, constrictor knot, alpine butterfly, Wagoner's hitch and many others), how to read a topo map and take a bearing and heading with a compass." Annette Trierweiler
• "I feel that I have learned more this term about biology, cooking, being laid back, neutralizing conflicts, how to not get car sick, and doing laundry by hand than I would have in ten years on my own without my classmates, Dr. Perry, and this program." Claire Fairley