Call for Applications Now Open: Indigenous Field School in Belize May 2024
Take your learning global with the Indigenous Field School in Belize!
This course is being offered by Algoma University, with up to 10 spaces reserved for Lakehead students. Together with the course leaders and staff and students from Algoma University, Lakehead students will participate in pre-departure preparation, the 11-day field school in Belize, and post-experience activities.
Program Dates
May 6 to 17, 2024
Information Session
Friday, Jan. 12 at 10 am
Application Deadline
Wednesday, Jan. 17
Lakehead will sponsor up to 10 eligible domestic undergraduate students through the Government of Canada's Global Skills Opportunity (GSO) funding (the amount mayvary depending on eligibility). Indigenous students will receive preference for funding. Funding is expected to cover program fees (covering international flights, activities, in country transportation, and some meals), tuition fees at Algoma University, and other administrative fees (total estimated costs to be approximately CAD 4,500). All participants will be provided with comprehensive health and travel insurance.
Belize is unique as the only English-speaking country in Central America. It gained its independence from British Honduras in 1981 and has since, steadily, defined its identity. The Indigenous cultures present in Belize include the Yucatec, Mopan, and Q'eqchi' Maya, and Garifuna peoples. Their languages as well as Spanish are part of Belize’s linguistic landscape. In this course students will visit several community leaders representing these Indigenous communities, as well as several Mayan architectural wonders to learn about their ethno-medicine, architecture, and astronomy. After completing this course students will: Learn to identify and use various plant medicines from the jungle; Be able to identify mathematics embedded in Mayan architecture, and; Build awareness of astronomical and scriptural features that define Mayan cultures.