SCIENCE, CULTURE & COMMUNITY INTERNSHIP

Amistad America, Inc. -- the operator of the Connecticut's Official Tall Ship, Freedom Schooner Amistad - has partnered with New Haven's Common Ground High School to pilot a new study aboard program in the Dominican Republic.  The six month program involves Common Ground students conducting an open ocean water sampling program this February.  Yale University's Department of Geology & Geophysics is leading the scientific training and analysis for this innovative outreach project as part of a larger National Science Foundation Grant. The sampling results will be incorporated into actual research by Yale faculty with the goal of publication in scientific journals. 

The sampling program is modeled after, GEOTRACES- a long-term international study of trace elements in the world's oceans, including their chemical reactions, distribution and utilization by living organisms that inhabit the oceans. The study and mapping of these elements in the planet’s oceans provides us with a better understanding of ocean processes, ocean health and the role of the ocean in climate change.
 
Training of the students for the project began last fall under the instruction of Professor Ruth Blake of the Department of Geology & Geophysics at Yale University.  Students will travel to the new Amistad Center for Educational Research & Cross-Cultural Studies in the Dominican Republic.  The Amistad Center is housed in a colonial building built in 1509 that is located just off the waterfront of the Colonial City in Santo Domingo.  The Center is the winter headquarters for Amistad's winter sailing programs that bring New England students to culturally significant locations throughout the Caribbean, including Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba.
 
"We are truly thankful for the support Yale University has shown in leading this science rich, outreach project," said Gregory Belanger, President of Amistad America. "These students will be doing truly meaningful field work and at the same time will be exposed to the history and culture of the Caribbean.  It is a terrific blend of science, cross-cultural study and direct service work.... the very heart of Amistad America's educational mission," Belanger said.

The six students selected from Common Ground High are Michael Bruno, Jackie Failla, Lanissa Gardner, Caleb Jackson, Alejandro Meran and Samantha O’Brien. “All signs pointed to Common Ground to be the first school Amistad approached in partnering with for this pilot,” said Amistad America’s Director of Education and Community Outreach, Hanifa Washington, “Common Ground exudes excellence when it comes to preparing students to be leaders in environmental science. The student body there have a way about them that is inspiring.” 

Common Ground High School was founded by the New Haven Ecology Project in 1997 as the nation's first public charter school focused on the urban environment. It is a small college preparatory high school, where students experience a combination of individual support and high expectations that help them achieve academic success. With only 155 students, Common Ground is able to challenge and support each individual, linking them with on- and off-campus opportunities that push them as far and as fast as possible. Common Ground uses three campuses – the forested ridge of West Rock State Park that surrounds the campus, their own 20-acre educational farm, and the city of New Haven – to engage students and provide challenging, relevant learning experiences.  Common Ground students master state standards and build environmental leadership skills as they design new green buildings on campus, partner in the research of university scientists, launch successful environmental business ventures, and create outdoor museum exhibits. For four straight years, the students of Common Ground High School have made some of the state's largest test score gains, and more than 93% of their students have been accepted to college.

"Here is an opportunity for our students to really apply all that they are learning," said Liz Cox the Director of Common Ground High School.  "We feel incredibly fortunate to have them contribute to an internationally significant study and to experience a deep immersion into the cultural history of a Caribbean country. This program presents a chance to return to a homeland for a few of our students; for others, it is a first travel experience outside of the country. Such an opportunity becomes life-changing, "she said.

Alejandro Meran, a senior selected from Common Ground and also Dominican born wrote, “Just thinking about going to the Dominican Republic and conducting biochemistry research is enough to keep my mind busy. It is more than a dream to be one of the six selected.”

Professor Blake, of Yale University, said she has been very impressed with the seriousness with which the students have approached the program. "One of my main goals is to have the students learn about and appreciate the diversity of chemical species in the oceans and diverse information recorded in their isotopes/distributions; not to reduce it to climate-focused research. I'm trying to introduce them to things they don't already know about and expand their horizons on studies of the environment."  Amistad America is working in partnership with the University of the Inter-Americas (UNIBE) of Santo Domingo to provide Blake’s research team with lab space and sampling equipment. “The 6 participants are very enthusiastic and seem to especially like the opportunity to perform ‘hands-on’ activities including practicing protocols for collecting seawater and biological samples for DNA-based analyses, and making actual analytical chemical measurements on practice/test samples in the laboratory,” says Blake.

During the February visit the students will also participate in a guided tour of Santo Domingo's Colonial City, visit several UNESCO Slave Trade Route Project sites and will stay overnight at an eco-village in the Jarabacoa region of the Dominican mountains.  The students will do a day of service work at the farm. The eco-village called Sonido Del Yaque (Sound of the Yaque River) is supported by the US State Department’s USAID program and is entirely self-sufficient with its own hydro-power generator, and greenhouses that capture waste to generate cooking gas and produce organic vegetables for market.  This collaboration with the eco-village is an excellent opportunity for Common Ground students who help to operate the organic farm at their New Haven campus.  

This pilot project is expected to expand to allow Common Ground and other Connecticut high school and college students the opportunity to work from the Amistad Center each winter. “Over the next two years Amistad is planning to focus on expanding our partnerships with Connecticut high schools, colleges and universities to give students study abroad experiences that combine applied environmental science, service learning and cultural history.” Washington said.

Eventually Amistad’s direct service and winter sailing programs will expand to engage in supportive programming for reforesting projects and local food production techniques in Haiti.

"Connecticut's Amistad Story provides the connection and a basis for a profound foundation of understanding among youth; through Amistad led educational programs Connecticut and Caribbean students mutually gain a greater understanding of themselves and the world they live in" Belanger said.  "That perspective and an understanding of the history of Slavery and Colonialism while sailing into places like the Colonial City and Cuba engages students as little else can; they are inspired to use what they've learned.  This pilot project will give them that opportunity," Belanger said.  "Common Ground has superbly prepared these students for this project and we're thrilled to partner with them to make it happen."

Samantha O’Brien, a senior selected to participate in the program says, “I think having programs such as this is important for New Haven students. It grants these students the opportunity to take part in important science research as well as cultural activities that they may otherwise not be exposed to.  And I think that opportunities such as this are what help a young person to broaden their understanding of the world that surrounds them and the importance of learning throughout every aspect of their life, with every chance that they get.”

The Freedom Schooner Amistad is scheduled set sail again in May 2012.  The Common Ground participants are slated to be on board for her first sail of the season.