MONGOLIA - Service Trip and Photography Workshop
This Discovery Week is being run through GSIS and the respected educational travel organization Rustic Pathways.
Students who sign up for this Discovery Week trip will journey to beautiful and fascinating Mongolia, where breathtaking scenery is contrasted with the challenging living conditions of the country’s herding population. Bettering these living conditions will be a large focus for the students on this trip, who will work with a local organization called Source of Steppe Nomads in a ger community called Gaachurt, just outside Ulaanbaatar. This community, though close to the capital, lacks much of the infrastructure needed to support its population and has been hard hit by economic changes in the past decade. Specific service projects will be determined closer to the trip as to be based on actual needs of the community. In the past, projects ranged from minor construction projects to teaching skills to children. In addition to the service aspects, the trip will also serve as a photography workshop for students. A professional photographer provided by Rustic Pathways will lead students through a series of sessions to discuss and share their work. Students will explore landscape, portrait, and nighttime shooting techniques. Students on this trip will need to bring a digital SLR camera that allows for manual mode. For students unfamiliar with digital SLRs, Mr Santella will run some pre-trip sessions to get them up to speed. Students will also have a chance to explore the history of Mongolia, with focus on Ghengis Khan and some more modern aspects of the country, such as the recent economic problems at the root of the herding population’s troubles. Students will also be led on a hike to a mountainside Buddhist monastery and visit the National History Museum of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar. The goals of the trip are to better the lives of herding community, give our students real world experiences aimed at making them more informed, creative, empathic people, and begin a long term, meaningful relationship between GSIS and the Mongolian people. Students will fly to Ulaanbaatar and they will stay in local guesthouses and a ger camp during the week. Leader: Mr Santella
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