Global Reach: USU Quinney Scholar Pursues Multi-Continent Bucket List

When it came time to select a college destination, Kourtney Blanc concluded, “Why pay more to go out of state when I could pursue the major I wanted in an excellent program at Utah State University?”

Little did the Lehi, Utah, native know that studying in-state would afford her the opportunity to pursue studies way out of state on two different sides of the globe.

“USU’s College of Natural Resources offered me a Quinney Scholarship and that’s allowed me to pursue international study,” says Blanc, a conservation and restoration ecology major in the Department of Wildland Resources. “Without that support, I wouldn’t have had the resources to travel and have these kinds of amazing study experiences.”

For more than two decades, the Salt Lake City-based S. J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation has funded undergraduate and graduate fellowships to students in USU’s College of Natural Resources. Blanc is one of more than 20 undergraduate Quinney Scholars currently enrolled in the college’s programs.

“Experiencing new cultures took me out of my comfort zone, challenged me and introduced me to new ways of thinking,” she says. “I can’t say thank you enough to the Quinney Foundation for giving me these opportunities.”

Blanc’s first foray into international field research was in summer 2010, when she traveled to Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula to perform conservation work near the tiny community of Las Caletas.

“It was paradise — the Osa Peninsula is the site of the only true tropical rainforest on Central America’s West Coast,” she says. “I lived with a host family in a beachfront shack just 100 yards from Drake Bay.”

Blanc spent her days sitting on slippery, red clay slopes under a canopy of nutmeg trees as she and fellow students counted seeds collected in seed traps and observed feeding habits of spider monkeys and toucans.

“It was hot and humid and I never knew I could sweat so much,” she says. “At night, we put our rubber boots on sticks on keep the snakes out.”

In the forest, Blanc was surprised to see colorful land crabs and annoyed by carablancas — white-faced monkeys that “peed on us and flung poo.”

Mischievous primates aside, the Aggie undergrad says she loves Costa Rica.

“I enjoyed the landscape, the people, the culture,” Blanc says. “When I started at USU, I thought I’d focus on animals but, as I worked in Costa Rica, I realized I was interested in plants, too.”

In January 2011, Blanc jumped at the opportunity to pursue a six-month semester abroad in South Central Africa. Mary Hubbard, vice provost for International Education at USU, helped her arrange for study at the University of Botswana and a volunteer position at The Peter Smith University of Botswana Herbarium of the Okavango Research Institute.

“Visiting the Okavango Delta was number one on my bucket list,” she says. “It’s the world’s largest inland delta and home to an amazing variety of wildlife, including elephants, lions and giraffes.”

Studies at the University of Botswana were daunting.

“Classes were conducted in English but it was intimidating to walk into the cafeteria, not knowing anyone, as students conversed in Setswana,” Blanc says. “But I forged ahead and made friends.”

Her studies in environmental policy and conservation biology were a challenge. Blanc says the adjustment to a different school system was difficult and her grades suffered. She wrote of her struggles to faculty mentor Johan du Toit, head of USU’s Department of Wildland Resources.

“Dr. du Toit urged me to keep trying,” she says. “He told me to ‘stick to it and show them what you’ve got.’ I took his words to heart and read my textbook from cover to cover. My grades improved. The experience was tough but it made me more proactive and assertive.”

At the Okavango Research Institute, Blanc lived in a tent and helped to catalog some of the 5,000 plant specimens recently received by the institute’s herbarium. She also participated in several ongoing research projects at the institute, including projects to germinate seeds of lilies and edible wild fruits. 

“I was on my own in Botswana and I had to grow up a lot,” she says. “But the experience really gave me a leg up in my studies and I look forward to getting involved in more research. An area I’m really interested in is seed dispersal.”

Back at USU, the Honors student works in the college’s ecology lab and recently traveled to Grand Junction, Colo., to collect soil samples. She plans to pursue graduate study following completion of her bachelor’s degree. Outside the classroom, Blanc is active in USU’s student chapters of the Society of American Foresters and The Wildlife Society.

“I’m so impressed with the College of Natural Resources and so grateful to the Quinney Foundation,” she says. “The students and faculty here are great and really push me to be my best.”

Aggies across campus are invited to participate in Natural Resources Week with activities Oct. 15-20. [See a list of activities in the Utah State Today announcement “Rooted Together: Aggie Invited to CelebrateNatural Resources Week.”]

Related links:

USU Department of Wildland Resources

USU College of Natural Resources

USU Office of International Education

Contact: Kourtney Blanc, kourtney.taylor.blanc@aggiemail.usu.edu

Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu