{"id":12078,"date":"2016-06-15T06:27:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T13:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=12078"},"modified":"2016-06-20T10:17:40","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T17:17:40","slug":"camosun-prof-students-return-from-educational-bolivia-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2016\/06\/15\/camosun-prof-students-return-from-educational-bolivia-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun prof, students return from educational Bolivia trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun Sports Management instructor Nevin Harper recently returned from a two-week trip to Bolivia with 10 Camosun students from a variety of different programs. Harper took his students everywhere from 4,000 metres above sea level\u2014an altitude that can be dangerous if you\u2019re not properly equipped\u2014to the Sendra Verde ecological reserve, which is home to more than 700 animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s truly experiential learning,\u201d says Harper. \u201cIt\u2019s well tied-in with the curriculum, and, yes, they need the learning outcome of those courses, but there\u2019s a massive value added. The experience itself is really setting them on course for post-post-secondary in terms of a taste of the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Bolivia there are cars driving in all directions on the road, a lack of governance, and a level of poverty unimaginable to many Canadians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have access to less than five litres of fresh drinking water a day per person, whereas we\u2019ve got about 300,\u201d says Harper, adding that it is still one of the most peaceful cultures he\u2019s observed.<\/p>\n

But the real reason Harper chose Bolivia for the field school, which is run through Camosun International, is that it is \u201ca place of extreme environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Camosun\u2019s<\/a>
Camosun\u2019s Nevin Harper was in Bolivia for two weeks with 10 students (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou get off the plane, you\u2019re at 4,100 metres. That\u2019s the highest airport in the world. Literally, it rocks your world. There are hand rails and oxygen tents in the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was trip of extremes for Harper and his group of students. He says that there are many dramatic changes in terms of what students see and experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe altitude, for me, is one of those things, especially for the students who are studying sport,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have no control over that. They can\u2019t outrun it. They actually have to become a little more aware and mindful of how many steps they take, and how fast they go up the stairs when they\u2019re carrying their backpack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harper says various measures were taken twice daily to combat altitude sickness, a form of oxygen deprivation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey actually are monitoring their own health,\u201d he says, \u201cand then indicate to me if their scores ever reach this threshold that says you might actually be dealing with altitude sickness. What it really does is it turns everybody\u2019s attention onto the finite of how well they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camosun student Kristjan Joubert\u2014who is a former member of the men\u2019s national rowing team\u2014went on the trip and says it was great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trip to Bolivia was really cool,\u201d says Joubert, \u201cjust in terms of exposure to different cultures. Regarding the physicality of it, that altitude made it feel like I was quite a bit behind the rest of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joubert says that he enjoyed mountain biking down something called \u201cDeath Road\u201d as well as hiking to the top of the Pico Austria summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was quite phenomenal\u2014just the scenery as you\u2019re scaling down from about 4,000 metres to about 1,600 metres. It was a really cool trip. If I had the opportunity again to do it, I\u2019d definitely do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun Sports Management instructor Nevin Harper recently returned from a two-week trip to Bolivia with 10 Camosun students from a variety of different programs. Harper took his students everywhere from 4,000 metres above sea level\u2014an altitude that can be dangerous if you\u2019re not properly equipped\u2014to the Sendra Verde ecological reserve, which is home to more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-june-15-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12078"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12081,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12078\/revisions\/12081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}