GEM Student Ambassadors Scott Reilly, far left, and Andrew VanNatta, along with GEM graduate student Lindsey Wood, discuss forest restoration efforts with two FES staff members, right, at an FES project site at a village in the state of Rajasthan.

Six students from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources are spending the summer abroad – two in India and four in Kenya – on service-learning projects in natural resources with GEM international partners. Each year, the Global Environment Management Education Center (GEM) through its Student Ambassador Program sponsors students to work with GEM overseas partners on practical natural resources projects, GEM is a center within the College of Natural Resources at UWSP. The work provides students an international perspective on resource issues and solutions. In addition, these ambassadorships are designed to provide cultural immersion experiences, with students spending about three months working closely with local residents and often living with host families. To date, 35 CNR students have participated in the program; other destinations have included South Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, China and Guyana.

Andrew VanNatta, a junior majoring in urban forestry, and Scott Reilly, a graduate student in environmental education, are GEM Student Ambassadors to India this summer. Kenya Student Ambassadors are Marie Holl, a sophomore in land use planning; Joanna Bietka, a junior in forest ecosystem restoration and forest management; Jesse Davis, a senior in environmental education and interpretation; and Hilary Meyer, a senior in fisheries and biology.

In India, Reilly and VanNatta are working with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), an Indian nongovernment organization that assists rural communities in ecological restoration and the sustainable use of land and water resources. The UWSP students are assisting FES with its study of the ecology of the 50-kilometer Menali River watershed near Bhilwara, a city in the state of Rajasthan. FES is working with villages in the Menali River watershed to develop a comprehensive management plan for the area and the ecological study with provide valuable information for the planning process.

The two students are adjusting to the sights, sounds and culture of India, all incredibly different from anything they’ve experienced before. "Everything here comes in extremes," Reilly wrote in an early-June letter to friends and family. "The food, the heat, the traffic, the poverty and wealth, the kindness. It lends itself to living and feeling, the good and the bad of it. There is a lot to be said for just living, and finding happiness in the simple moments." VanNatta writes that the environment itself is another "strikingly extreme component of the country. The first five weeks I’ve spent in India have been at the end of the dry season. Everything is a drab color, full of dust and, of course, heat (they say the 40-45 degree Celsius temperatures are mild compared to some years!)"

Andrew VanNatta, a UWSP junior in urban forestry and 2008 GEM Student Ambassador in India, kneels in the dry Menali River bed, before summer monsoons. Andrew and Scott Reilly are assisting with a study of the ecology of the Menali River watershed.