How a Week in the Amazon Changed 13 Students' View of Nature

October 01, 2025

• Campus News

SUA students participate in a workshop at a nursery for native plant species at the Soka Amazon Institute.

Thirteen SUA students stepped off the boat into the Kambeba Indigenous community near Manaus, Brazil, in August to begin conversations that would reshape how they see humanity's relationship with nature. Their weeklong Amazon study tour launched more than an academic partnership - it offered an unfiltered look at environmental challenges in one of Earth's most biodiverse regions.

The study tour marked the launch of SUA's partnership with the Soka Amazon Institute after President Edward Feasel signed a memorandum of understanding with the institute last year. The Soka Institute for Global Solutions (SIGS) sponsored the intensive non-credit experience covering all costs to ensure accessibility regardless of students' financial means. The 13 participants were selected last spring based on essays about their sustainability interests and relevant experience.

Through its close relationships with local communities, environmental organizations, and research institutions, the Soka Amazon Institute organized the study tour activities, providing a translator when needed. Ian Read, professor of Latin American studies and senior research fellow at SIGS, facilitated the study tour, grounding the experience in the dialogue-based learning that is fundamental to a liberal arts education at SUA.

View from the Kambeba Community near Manaus, Brazil, on August 28. Photo by Matheus Vicentin '28.

Read explained that the study tour had three main goals: to foster leadership, ethical responsibility, and the creative coexistence between nature and humanity. The third goal, which is one of the founding principles of SUA, also plays a central role in the mission of the Soka Amazon Institute. It also provided the philosophical question at the heart of the study tour: What is our relationship with nature, and how can we coexist with it responsibly?

"One of the biggest problems leading to the climate crisis we have now," Read said, "is considering humanity as superior to and separate from nature. That's not just leading to the depletion of biodiversity, but it's also harming ourselves." There is a lot to learn, he said, from Indigenous cultures around the world who have maintained a more harmonious relationship with their environment. These communities are often the most seriously impacted by climate disasters that are actually caused by unsustainable practices elsewhere in the world.

With a focus on cultural exchange, the study tour created rich opportunities for students to learn and grow from their interactions with communities in the Amazon, enabling them to practice global citizenship in a very tangible way. This approach to environmental issues is what motivated Mareva Dijoux '26 of Brive-la-Gaillard, France, to participate in the study tour.

"I am concentrating in environmental studies," she said, "and I focus on ecology, environmental justice, and Indigenous knowledge systems. This tour gathered all these concepts together. It was a perfect fit because it aligned with what I'm truly passionate about."

A Soka Amazon Institute staff member teaches the study tour cohort about the diversity of fruits and plants in the Amazon, explaining the work the institute does to preserve these species and educate the public. Photo by Mareva Dijoux '26.

Learning about Sustainability from Multiple Perspectives

In planning the study tour, Read and the SIGS team drew inspiration from the 16 principles of the Earth Charter, which approaches sustainability holistically and recognizes its intersections with a range of other global issues.

"How we creatively coexist with nature is very much a scientific question, but it's also a political question," said Read, who taught a Learning Cluster last winter that visited the Earth Charter Education Center in San José, Costa Rica. "It's also an economic question and a cultural question. So the answer has to draw broadly across disciplines and stakeholders, from the academic community, to nonprofits and NGOs, to the communities who are living on the front lines of climate change."

The study tour's packed itinerary examined sustainability from many angles, immersing students in questions related to ecology, education, social justice, economic inequality, and natural resource management. At the Soka Amazon Institute, students conducted expert interviews with staff and participated in a workshop that taught children from the city of Manaus about deforestation. At the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), students took part in a roundtable discussion about biodiversity and social technology. They also enhanced their ecological knowledge of the region through a tour of INPA's entomology collection and Bosque da Ciência, a park created to educate the public about the unique flora and fauna of the Amazon rainforest.

SUA students participate in a culinary workshop in the Kambeba Community on August 28.

One of the most impactful experiences for students was their two-day visit to the Kambeba Indigenous community, located about an hour away from Manaus by boat. Here, students conversed with tribal elders, who shared their deep knowledge about specific plants and the broader ecosystem during a guided walk through the forest. Students also learned about Kambeba culture and food systems in hands-on craft and cuisine workshops. Perhaps most meaningful, however, was the opportunity to have in-person conversations with community members about how their lives have been impacted by climate change.

"Having face-to-face dialogue with people and seeing the environment really gives you a sense of urgency," Dijoux said. "When you talk with people and ask questions, you can really understand the things that could be of support to them and the ways that you can help."

The study tour also visited the Catalão community, a floating fishing village that has suffered from extreme heat and a lack of safe drinking water. Being on site and talking with locals helped Bidisha Kaphle '26 of Kathmandu, Nepal, contextualize these daily challenges and think about how government policy can support communities like Catalão. This experience has inspired her to use her background in political science to work on closing the gap between policy and community needs in her homeland.

Students take part in an educational walk through the rainforest guided by Kambeba tribal elders. Photo by Bidisha Kaphle '26.

"There are a lot of communities in Nepal that are trying to safeguard traditional cultures and practices, but there has not been a lot of progress in mainstreaming that," Kaphle said. "It was really cool to learn about such communities in Brazil because I could relate it so much to issues back home. And it actually inspired me to look more into my country's initiatives and see how I can advocate more for these communities."

An international studies concentrator, Kaphle was making the kinds of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural connections that were fundamental to this study tour. The cohort included undergraduates from a range of academic concentrations, enabling students to synthesize their experiential learning on the study tour with their diverse academic interests during group discussions. For both Kaphle and Dijoux, being part of a cohort with different concentrations and professional goals made the learning experience all the more valuable, providing insights into various ways of taking action.

"We had a group of passionate people, and we were all inspired by each other's curiosity," Dijoux said. "We all had the same desire to learn and to do something."

The study tour cohort, pictured here during their visit to the Kambeba Community, included students from the classes of 2026, 2027, and 2028, with a variety of academic concentrations represented.

In future study tours, Read plans to increase the number of opportunities for reflection and discussion, allowing for even more meaningful moments of exchange. As the Brazil collaboration project faculty liaison, he is also working to strengthen SUA's connection with universities in Manaus, including Amazonas State University, which could provide more learning experiences for study tour participants in future years.

Students interested in participating in the study tour next year should keep an eye out for announcements from SIGS about upcoming information sessions. The application process will open again in the spring semester. Kaphle encourages students from all academic concentrations to apply, even if they have not yet taken environmental studies courses.

"It's a very meaningful experience," she said. "I'm really happy I did it. It impacted how I look at the world and at ways of making change."