Hands down, this has to be my favorite honors course that I’ve taken so far. I did this in the summer, right after the 2021-22 school year ended. We shipped off to Cody, Wyoming, and explored important regions to the Native Americans and locals. We also got to explore places such as Jackson Hole (WY) and Gardiner (MT). This “study away” (not abroad), revolved around stewardship issues within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In other words, we focused on different “groups” that had significant impacts on the park, such as humans, bears, bison, or fish. It was an incredibly fun trip, I loved every minute of it, and I’m so thankful for the faculty that came along with us. The craziest part is that just a few weeks after we came back to Virginia, there were devastating floods in the Yellowstone/Gardiner area. Those people were landlocked, and parts of the town still might be. I’m incredibly grateful that we were able to get out of the town before this, and hope that the region is recovering well.
Link Within this artifact, I wrote a 10+ page fictional story about bison in the park. This was my “final” for the course, and it tasked me with compiling real knowledge about bison impact upon the park, how stakeholders in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem interact with them, and so much more. I had to take all of this real detail and mix it with a fictional, creative twist of my own. Feel free to read it! It’s a short and fun one.