Summer Portfolio

When you think about how to spend your summer, you should also think about what happens when it ends. You'll have some great photos of course. You washing an elephant, you holding a tiger cub, you and your friends atop the highest peak in Thailand, the hill tribe family you lived with, the gibbon whose home you saved who also stole your banana...

But what else will you have to show for your summer? Every student’s portfolio will vary, but yours might include:

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Volunteer experience: The first and last weeks of our program are recognized volunteer programs with the Elephant Nature Park, a conservation effort lauded worldwide for its efforts and progress. Your time on both these projects should count toward community service requirements or recommendations at your school. More than that, it serves as a real contribution to preserving natural habitats in Thailand and saving the Asian Elephant population.

Coursework: Most of our time is spent in the field, experiencing the city and the wilds around it first-hand. But your understanding is supplemented by recent journal articles and case studies presenting various viewpoints. This will provide you a chance to experience the “journal club” and “case method” ways of learning, popular in graduate programs.

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Conservation Project: In the third week of the program, you will have a chance, either alone or in teams, to design a conservation project in an area about which you are passionate. You might choose to write and publish an article about a cause you're passionate about, raise money to support a charity near to your heart, write a grant, or spend your time working somewhere in Chiang Mai toward positive change. If you’d like to undertake your project when you get home, we’ll support you and help you get it started and keep it going.

College Essays: Yes, you’ll come home with a college essay for your portfolio too. This will give you a chance to reflect on your experience and show how your perspective has changed, while crossing something big of the to-do list. Our faculty includes a writing tutor to support you.

It’s hard to find something that looks impressive on paper and is still fun every day, but there you have it. What we can promise is that we’ll do our best never to waste your time. And that means that when you’re working on a project, it has a purpose. The work you put together for your portfolio will help you synthesize everything you see and hear into a way of thinking you can apply to any field you choose in the future.