2008: New England High school students trade winter for the Amazon!

In March, 10 students from Lawrenceville School (New Jersey, USA) and 10 students from Lawrence Academy (Massachusetts, USA) will spend 10 days at the Madre Selva Biological Station. The students will study the ecology and biology of the Amazon under the guidance of their professors Jim Serach and Jerry Wooding, assisted by Dr. Devon Graham of Project Amazonas and one or more Peruvian biologists. This will be the third time the two professors have brought students to the field station, and they are eager to conduct field projects with bats, fish parasites, and avian malaria, along with conducting a thorough review of the major groups of tropical organisms, and studying how the Amazon (and other tropical rainforests) actually function. The group will be quite international, with students hailing from the USA, Spain, Japan and El Salvador.

2008: Peruvian student practicum opportunities in ichthyology and ornithology

For two weeks in late January and early February, several students from the University of the Peruvian Amazon will have opportunity to conduct practicum field work thanks to the sponsorship of Margarita Tours. The students will travel aboard the Tucunare riverboat to the Napo and Mazan River areas on a two week exploration of the fish and bird fauna of those rivers. Fish surveys will be conducted by Dr. Devon Graham, accompanied by Stephen Pritchard and Danny Blundell of the United Kingdom. Bird surveys will be conducted by Dr. Haven Wiley (North Carolina State University) assisted by Dr. Graham.

2007: amazon calendars benefit local schools

Student from Friday Harbor High School (Washington, USA) who visited the Madre Selva Biological Station in the summer of 2006 obtained a Gates Foundation grant and used it to create a 2008 calendar featuring art by elementary students from the Yagua Indian community of Comandancia. The Friday Harbor students sold the calendars to raise funds for the purchase of school supplies for village schools on the Orosa River. SEE THE CALENDAR PAGES! The students have challenged subsequently educational groups to take up the project to ensure a continued source of funding for schools in the Peruvian Amazon. Students from Florida International University are planning on producing a 2009 Amazon calendar. To pre-order your 2009 calendar, contact us!

2003-2004: Amazon Scholarship program

In 2003 and 2004 Project Amazonas offered student travel scholarships for full time Florida university students enrolled in honors programs. Students had to demonstrate a serious interest in Latin America and the Amazon region, as well as submit an essay and letters of reference. The purpose of these scholarships were to expose Florida's most promising students and future leaders to the environment, people, and cultures of the Amazon region, affording them the opportunity to experience new ideas and realities, and to reflect on how their own life choices may affect people in developing countries, and particularly the Amazon. The Florida students were joined joined by Peruvian university students during their exploration of the Amazon in order to add an additional inter-cultural dimension to the scholarship program.

The scholarships were funded through donations by individuals and corporations, but unfortunately steep increases in airfares and a lack of compensatory funding necessitated cancellation of the program in 2005. We would be eager to re-initiate the program, however, if the funding became available. The students who benefited in 2003 and 2004 (both US and Peruvian) continue to keep in contact, and various of them are actively involved in volunteer and research projects in Amazonia or adjacent areas.