Hello, everyone! My name is Lexi, and I am a senior majoring in biology.  This past February I was fortunate enough to be able to take a travel course: this course was Tropical Marine Biology taught by Dr. Andraso, Dr. Dempsey, and Dr. Ganger.  For this course, we went on a trip to San Salvador, Bahamas where we studied coral reefs and the different organisms that live at each reef.  

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On the trip, we stayed at Gerace Research Center which is an old naval base that has served as a research center/field station since 1971.  It is still set up as if it were a naval base and operates in a similar manner with meals held at a set time and in a mess hall.  This helps to keep things running smoothly because they house many schools at once.  Due to the pandemic, Gannon was the only school that was there for the majority of the week; however, there were a few other schools that came later in the week.  Going on this trip gave me the opportunity to meet other students from different places in the country and connect with other Gannon students whom I did not already know.  It was interesting to get to know other students from other schools and share this amazing experience.

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Some of the activities that we did on the trip were small hikes, exploration of caves, snorkeling, intertidal zone classification of organisms, and some geology identification (fossilized coral reef and blow holes). One of my favorite things to do on the trip was snorkel!  This was almost a daily activity, for  we sometimes even went twice a day.  Gerace Research Center keeps a library of all the sea turtles that are around the island so that they can study the migration of the turtles. While snorkeling, we discovered a few baby sea turtles that had not yet been identified in the turtle library. Because we were the first to find them and turn them into the library, we were able to name the turtles.  The sea turtles were very friendly and allowed us to hold them while we were snorkeling with them.  This was my favorite part of the trip because sea turtles are my favorite animal.  In addition to playing with the sea turtles, we also got to snorkel at an old shipwreck and (cont.)go exploring in caves.  Some of the incredible things that we got to see outside of the water were the Olympic torch from the 1968 Olympics hosted by Mexico and the spot where Christopher Columbus is said to have first set foot in the Americas.  These were things that I would never have even thought about seeing if it were not for this trip.

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Going on this trip was also a bit of a culture shock to me.  San Salvador has a population of roughly 930 people, which is about ¼ of the students that attend Gannon.  It was crazy to see the man who landed our airplane working as a bartender the same night.  There are not a ton of places to work on the island, so many people find themselves getting jobs on the mainland (Nassau), if they are not working at the school, clinic, or Gerace.  The people of San Salvador were extremely friendly and welcoming to all the students that went on the trip.  They thrive on tourism, as it is one of the main ways they make their money.  Some of the locals brought us custom made souvenirs throughout the week.  Due to the pandemic, Gerace and the people of San Salvador are taking a hard hit.  They are struggling financially to keep things running due to the lack of tourism.  As a way to give back, students from the trip donated their extra funds to Gerace to help them get back on their feet.  Additionally, to give back to the island itself, many students collected trash on one of our free mornings to help keep the island clean. In years past, they found a crate washed up on shore that was made right here in Erie! It is important to give back to the environment so that we can enjoy these trips and continue them for generations to come.

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My advice for any student who is thinking about taking a travel course is to just go for it! There are a lot of scholarships available to help cover the trip financially.  Many students who went on this trip did not have to pay much out of pocket.  Trips like these provide opportunities for you to get to know other students from Gannon and the professors.  The professors have gone on these trips several times before, so they know the “hidden” places to visit that you may not know about if you went on your own one day.  My own personal regret is that I did not take more trips while I had the chance.  I would recommend that everyone go on at least one trip while they are in college.  It truly is a once in a lifetime experience.

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