<p>
	Students in our popular &lsquo;Tropical Agriculture and Missions&rsquo; course will be stepping off the plane into a different tropical environment this year. After holding the course at the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) in South Florida for the past eight years, this year&rsquo;s&nbsp;course will be taught in Costa Rica at the field station of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.glocalade.org/" target="_blank">Association for Development through Education</a>&nbsp;(ADE), a Christian organization devoted to capacity building in post-disaster regions and marginalized communities through education initiatives.&nbsp; While many of the topics covered through the course will be the same, its new location creates the opportunity to enhance the field component of the course by allowing&nbsp;students to directly observe, interact with, and learn from local farmers, development workers, and missionaries.</p>
<p>
	<img alt="" class="img-right" src="{filedir_5}Tropical-Agriculture-and-Missions-photo.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 200px;" />The Tropical Agriculture and&nbsp;Missions&nbsp;course is one of a number of&nbsp;&nbsp;distinctive courses that Au Sable offers to provide life-changing learning opportunities that supplement the curriculum at our participating colleges.&nbsp; The tropical agriculture course in particular serves a diverse array of students in science, international development, medicine, and missions programs from our participating colleges.&nbsp; Students from a wide variety of interests and backgrounds bring different learning perspectives and motivations that enhance the course for all involved.</p>
<p>
	As Executive Director Martin Price acknowledges, &ldquo;The tropical agriculture&nbsp;course is an eye opener for many students to see how agriculture and missions bring together so many areas of their interest and training; areas where urgent human, environmental and spiritual needs converge.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	The course itself focuses on working&nbsp;with resource-poor farmers. Topics include the scientific basis&nbsp;behind successful low cost agricultural techniques, a survey of major tropical&nbsp;crops and their requirements, agroforestry, urban gardening, small animal care, and issues in Christian missions and community&nbsp;development.</p>
<p>
	For more information about the course, check out our <a href="/courses/course_information/may_term/#Tropical%20Agriculture">course information page</a>.</p>
