News & Events

For Colgate student-athletes, going away for a semester to take part in an off-campus study program often proves as difficult as securing a triple-double in hoops or a hat trick on the ice.

The time away from campus often conflicts with the demands of a Division I athletics schedule.

But other opportunities exist for student-athletes and others through the 22 short-term “extended study” trips offered by the university.

Five members of the women’s basketball team and a member of the men’s hoops team are among the 13 Colgate students taking advantage of just such an opportunity through a three-week extended study trip to Santa Fe, N.M.

Megan Ballard

Meghan Curtin

D. Warwick

Three players -- Megan Ballard ’06, Meghan Curtin ’06, and Devon Warwick ’06 – have volunteered to keep an online journal (blog) as they extend their studies beyond the classrooms in Hamilton.

The trip, which begins Tuesday (May 17)  is part of a Native American studies course about pueblo communities taught by Sarah Wider, professor of English and women’s studies.

The students will learn about pueblo life and culture through interactions with members of the Tesuque and Cochiti pueblos.

The planned activities include helping pueblo members with preparations for the annual corn dance, assisting in the “language nest” (a preschool where instructors only speak the native language), and volunteering in health centers and government operations.

The students also will visit the Bandelier and El Morro national parks and the Acoma, A’ts’ina and Zuni pueblos.

Ballard, Curtin, Warwick, Melanie Cargle ’08, Caitlin Gillard ’08 and Jon Foss ‘06, all varsity basketball players – will offer a basketball camp for children from the Tesuque and Cochiti pueblos.

The camp is tentatively scheduled for the second weekend of the trip. The students will instruct the children in basketball fundamentals and basic game strategy.

Both Curtin and Warwick are majoring in sociology and anthropology, while Ballard is a religion major.

Check back in the coming weeks as they report on what they doing, seeing, and learning as they explore the world of pueblo communities – firsthand.