Evan Tipton, the Grizzlies Abroad marketing intern, writes:

“What is your favorite place?” Is a question you hear a lot as a professional in the travel and tourism industry. Every time I hear it, I give the same heartfelt answer, “The South Island of New Zealand, hands down.” During the winter of 2010-11, I got to spend five weeks in New Zealand on AUIP’s Sustainability study abroad course.

Given my professional commitment to sustaining wild places and indigenous cultures and my personal passion for the work, it made great sense to fly 7,887 miles around the globe to study in New Zealand. The adventure turned out to be the best travel experience of my life, and the most rewarding learning opportunity. Sure, swimming with 800 dusky dolphins in the wild, rafting the Hokitika River, plunging into Maori culture, and hiking in the sublime Southern Alps were worth writing home about, and so were the life-long friendships I forged on the trip. But its luminous, lasting lesson came through the experiential power of such hands-on academic work to broaden and deepen my vision of our globe’s fragile natural and social ecology.

As the new marketing intern for Grizzlies Abroad at the University of Montana, I look forward to sharing my New Zealand experience with students across campus. Don’t just take it from me; heed the wise words of prophets and saints when it comes to travel and learning, and then see for yourself!

“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled.” – Mohammed

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine