A: No! We welcome everyone. In fact, we feel it is very important that this course not be a "special" course for disabled students. Bringing students together from all walks of life is an important aspect of the course.

A: Both in-person and remote options are carefully desgined to work for people with disabilities. Choose whichever you think will give you the best experience, and what works for your needs. 

A: We would love to be able to say we can accommodate everyone, but the truth is we have our limits. Students participating in the in-person section need to be able to travel and take care of their personal needs (solo or with a caregiver) without assistance from our staff. We simply can't provide intensive personal support while running a field course.

Students with unmanaged or poorly managed mental heath needs should think carefully about in-person participation. Please consider how well you will do outside of the supports and comforts of your home environment. This course is designed to minimize anxiety and stress as much as possible, but it is still a field course. You will be out of your comfort zone and challenged in potentially new and unfamiliar ways (weather/heat, travel, social interactions with new people, new academic material, deadlines, etc.). For some people, the virtual option is the best one for their mental health, and that's ok!  

Students with severe (life threatening) food, animal or environmental allergies should contact us to discuss your needs. We have worked with students with significant allergy issues, but there are limits to what we can shield you from and we want to make sure we can reasonably ensure your safety before bringing you out into the field. We also need to avoid potential access conflicts (for example, someone with a severe dog allergy and someone with a service dog in the same cohort).  

A: Yes! We welcome graduate students, especially those early in their graduate studies. In addition to academic course expectations, grad students are expected to act as near-peer mentors to undergraduate students classmates. 

Maybe. You do not have to be a US citizen, or reside in the US to apply or participate, but we prioritize US students. We also have a limited travel budget, which may mean we can only cover part of your travel costs if you are coming from far away. We can cover your food, lodging and offset transportation costs to the field course, but it is not possible to provide the stipend to non-US residents. We cannot cover the cost of obtaining a passport, visa or any other required documents to enter the US, and you must have a valid passport and any required visas before we can book travel for you. 

Sometimes we cannot accept international students due to stipulations of our funding support (sometimes it's USA students only). Please contact us for more information about participating as an international student.  

A: Maybe. Our virtual students need to be able to devote significant time during the day to the field course. We can work around schedules to some extent, but find that the experience is significantly diminished for students who have very limited time to devote to the course. It also diminishes the experience for other virtual students, who get a less collaborative experience if you are never online when everyone else is. Please reach out to us to discuss your scheduling needs so we can determine if we can make the course work for you.

A: No. The demand for this course is very high, and we prioritize students who can participate for the full duration of the course. Of course there are unique cases, but in general partial participation is not going to work.

We hope anyone that is exhibiting symptoms of viral illness will mask indoors when with the group. Abiding by any illness-related preventative measures during the trip is part of the Code of Conduct. This is part of the Culture of Care that is central to the GeoSPACE approach. If you are especially medically vulnerable to viral illness, you should consider if in-person participation (and the travel to get there) is the best option for you. This one of the many reasons we offer the virtual section of the course.