January is PUP’s busiest month for its study abroad program. This year PUP staff facilitated two week-long international faculty-led study abroad courses for the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a scouting trip for a small private American university.

The University of Tennessee is now in its second year of collaboration with the PUP Collaboratory. In 2024, three professors participated in a scouting trip, while its pilot course of 16 students arrived in January 2025. This first-year student program is sponsored by the Smith Center for International Sustainable Agriculture and Herbert College of Agriculture so that students may learn about and experience international travel, study, and work possibilities. This year 30 students and five professors (across both courses) visited Tirimbina Biological Reserve (PUP member), Wellness Park Costa Rica (PUP member), Mistico Park (PUP associate), Los Lagos Hotel and Resort (volcanic hotsprings), Rinconcito Lodge, Junquillal Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and Rincon de la Vieja National Park. Local Peace Corps Volunteers also talked with students about their experiences.

This year PUP, Wellness Park, and the university erected a sign in what the university calls the Voluntree Grove (“Volunteers” is the UT mascot name) in a growing biological corridor between the Wellness Park and Arenal National Park. The 2025 pilot students planted the first 16 trees followed by more than 30 trees from both courses this year.

PUP also carried out a scouting trip with two professors from the private Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota to design a course on different values of biodiversity, both scientific and cultural scheduled for January 2027. In addition to the abovementioned sites, they also visited Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve (PUP member), the Seeds of Change Research Center for Tropical Studies, and Santa Rosa National Park.

PUP’s first course ever covered the evolution of protected areas with the University of Montana in January 2024.

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For more information on PUP’s Study Abroad Program, write studyabroad@pupcollaboratory.net

Photos: 1) University of Tennessee students pose around their new Voluntree Grove sign planted in the Wellness Park Costa Rica. January 2026. 2) Professors from University of Tennessee and Augustana dine with PUP staff at Rinconcito Lodge where a course and the scouting trip overlapped.