I am SAM, SAM I am.

Actually it’s me, Jessee, finally posting my very first blog entry. (Entering my very first blog post?? …I’m new to this.) In any case, it’s true. My new official title, as of the first of June, is Student Affairs Manager at the School for Field Studies center located in the Turks and Caicos Islands (i.e. SAM at SFS in TCI – just FYI). Whew!

I’ve been asked many times recently to explain what kind of work exactly I’ll be doing down there for the next year (although the text version of this question lacks intonation and therefore fails to convey its typically blatant insinuation that ‘work’ in this case is undoubtedly a euphemism for some sort of girls-gone-wildesque extended Caribbean vacation), so I figured that posting a brief description of the job as I understand it would be a good excuse for me to finally contribute something to this blog. Here goes…

Basically, four times a year a new group of undergraduate students arrives in TCI to study a range of topics from Tropical Marine Ecology and Resource Management to Socioeconomic and Environmental Policy in the region, and to carry out a range of independent research projects. In order to earn their 16 credits per semester, or 4 credits per shorter summer session, they are in class most mornings and in the water most afternoons. A good deal of the research actually takes place underwater, for example surveying the coral reefs or identifying other types of sea life. Here’s a quote from the SFS website:

“Nearly 50 species of corals as well as spotted eagle rays, sea turtles, sharks, groupers, snappers, and dolphin fish are easily spotted in the clear, warm waters just steps away from our field station.”

Wow.

My job is to help them get adjusted upon arrival (orientations and safety trainings), get to know one another (teambuilding activities), get along with one another (conflict mediations), get involved in the local community (plan service projects and integration activities), get active (did someone say ultimate frisbee?!), get productive (work with the faculty to set up a schedule that factors in class time, fieldwork, downtime, etc.), get focused (inevitably the girls-gone-wildesque extended Caribbean vacation rumors have will reached some of them), and pretty much just get the most out of the experience that they can.

Now, I’ll be sure to blog to you all (it’s a verb too, right?) again in a few weeks to correct the record once I’ve arrived in TCI, settled into the job a bit, and learned that everything I just wrote is either utterly incomprehensive or altogether inaccurate. Stay tuned. And don’t forget to keep us tuned into your lives over the next year too. Send us e-mails to read when we’re sunburned and homesick and eating conch eyeballs for breakfast for the twenty-seventh day in a row. Of course, I’d be every bit as happy to read your e-mails when I’m tan and meeting interesting people and snorkeling for the twenty-seventh afternoon in a row. I would read them here or there…


P.S. I made an effort this time, but I may have to leave the fancy photos and creative visuals to Brett in the future!