The students will spend the next few months in Iceland under the auspices of the SIT Institute. School for International Training was officially established in 1964. However, its roots date back to 1932 when Dr. Donald Watt founded The Experiment in International Living, which aims to improve understanding across cultures and nations by sending US students abroad to live with families in their communities in order to expand their worldviews.

Since the 1960s, the Institute has been working according to these original goals and during that time peace efforts have become integrated into the operations. Various international issues have also been considered more and more. Current focus areas include climate and environment, development & inequality, education and social change, geopolitics and power, global health & well-being, identity & human resilience, peace and justice.

The students who are currently staying in Iceland visited the research facilities at Mógilsá on 27 February. They were given an introduction to the new institution Land and Forest Iceland, especially the work and projects of the research and development department, as well as the Icelandic Forest Inventory’s projects involving monitoring forestland in Iceland, compiling data on carbon in the forests and more.

As mentioned above, these students come from all over the United States and study a wide range of subjects, from pedagogy to oceanography, to name a few. In Iceland, the group is supervised by Dr. Christine Palmer, who is also their principal instructor here. Christine is well known to many people in Iceland, especially in the forest sector. She was recently appointed as the director of the School of International Training and is based at the University Center in the Westfjords, Ísafjörður.