Visiting Tajikistan was an important first step to gaining appreciation for the scope and relevance of our UCA curriculum development project. The four of us making this trip were impressed by the amazing, friendly, energetic team building this new university and it’s 3 new campuses from scratch. And it was a privilege to meet the students who will be the first to take our courses in this Earth and Environmental Sciences degree.
Meeting UCA people, and the many organizations involved in related disciplines, has provided us with a whole new level of understanding for the relevance of this program, and the responsibility we have to generate an excellent experience that will prepare students for productive and personally rewarding careers in Earth, environmental or geological sciences that will have significant impacts in the emerging, sustainable economies of the region.
This was a visit packed with meetings, smoothly and cheerfully managed by our UCA hosts, guides, and now friends. Thanks for the help and the experiences! A list of who we met is summarized on a separate page.
And for the four of us on this trip, the few photos shown here should provide a hint of the amazing impressions we gained for Tajikistan, UCA, and the cities of Dushanbe and Khorog. Next spring and summer we anticipate that two more groups of 4-5 course developers will travel to support the academic, cultural and geographical contextualization of their courses.
One set of 140 photos can be viewed on Flickr here.
Another set can be seen on Google Photos here.