ACADEMIC SUCCESS
During a seven-day class trip to Death Valley National Park, a group of Stanislaus State students studying geography and environmental resources were impressed by the bounty of life they found in a place with a lifeless name. “People think the desert is dead and there is nothing there, but that is not the case. The desert is very much alive,” said student Yaniri Piza. “This trip gave me a new perspective on the desert.” Piza was one of 10 students who spent a week in Death Valley as part of a geography course titled, “Geographical Processes in Arid Landscapes: Death Valley.” Offered every other year, the class teaches field techniques in geography through the analysis of geomorphic processes, climate characteristics, vegetation patterns, adaptations and human impacts. Associate Professor of Geography Alison McNally noted it is the same trip she took more than two decades ago when she was an undergraduate Warrior. “Students can learn about desert processes, biodiversity and physical landscapes in the classroom, but to go out and be right in the middle of it — they’re living it,” she said. “They’re feeling it, touching it. It just makes the connection so much deeper when they get out into the field.”
STA N M AGA Z I N E
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