As a student who had never done a study abroad program before, but always wanted to, St Petersburg College really came through for me when I was awarded a study abroad scholarship. The scholarship helped fund my trip to Thailand to work with elephants at a wild life sanctuary. It was a trip that I likely would not have been able to afford on my own, and I’m very grateful that I had this opportunity. Many of my classmates had wanted to go on the trip as well, but were unable to afford it. I feel lucky to be one of the recipients of the scholarship so that I could go. I think that if more students knew about the scholarship, they may have applied for the trip.

I used the Study Abroad scholarship money to pay for my flight and about half of the costs of the volunteer program that I participated in. Traveling is not cheap and having the funds to make it happen really made a difference. I knew that since I was graduating it would be my last chance to study abroad and so I am really glad I applied.

A lot of student face financial hardships both during and after they finish school. Scholarships like the one I got can make a huge difference in your college experience. Having the trip to look forward to helped me stay on track and finish my last semester. I think that students should take advantage of all the great scholarships SPC has to offer. I had a great time traveling with my friends and instructors. I got to visit a foreign country that I had never expected to go to and I got to get up close and personal with many elephants while I was there. I also have this experience to add to my resume, which is also a great thing.

Click here to read student stories from the SPC Thailand Study Abroad program.

One of the fun activities we did during our trip to Thailand was feeding the elephants. As you can imagine, they eat a lot of food every day. In the morning we rinse off all the fruit that they will eat during the day.  They eat a lot of bananas, watermelons, and pineapples. We fed them “banana balls” once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Banana balls are made from mashed bananas, rice powder, and elephant pellets.  I did not know there were such a thing as elephant pellets before. Feeding the banana balls were fun and the elephants really enjoyed them. Some of the elephants chewed slower than others so it was important to try to time it out so that all of the elephants finished at the same time to avoid food aggression. Some of the elephants tend to be more dominant than others, just like in the wild. It was really great to get a chance to see these beautiful giants up close. In the afternoon we chopped more fruit and did some walks and hand feeding. On days that tourists came, however, they got to do the walking and feeding so the volunteers just prepared everything. They offered day tours to people who wanted to see the facility and the animals so they could get some elephant experience too. I was happy when there were no tourists though, because that meant that the volunteers could actually interact with the elephants instead of just preparing everything and cleaning the enclosures. The elephants are very food motivated and will follow you anywhere as long as you have food to give them. Sometimes even when you don’t have food they will come up to the fence just to make sure. Feeding the elephants was one of the coolest things we did while we were there.

Want to take part in a similar program while earning college credits? Click here to find out how you can study abroad through the available programs at SPC.

In the afternoons when it was really hot (which was most of the time!) we experience bathing the elephants. After we fed them and walked them the mahoots would guide the elephants out of the enclosure for a bath. We had a tub filled with water and dumped chunks of fruit into it. The elephants would stay at the tub while we bathed them for as long as the fruit lasted- after that they got restless and started looking for more food. We used a water hose and long handled scrub brushes to wash the elephants. We gently washed the tops and sides of the elephants, carefully avoiding their sensitive abdomens and taking care not to run the water into their eyes. For the most part I think they enjoyed their baths. It was also fun to see them fish the fruit out of the tubs with their trunks. I did not know that they eat bananas whole, peel and all!  They often made a lot of grumbling noises, which sounded a little alarming at first, but was not a sign that they were unhappy. I also heard them trumpet a few times which was really great. Those were the sounds that I knew I would miss once the trip was over. The elephants that I worked with were friendly for the most part, but there were others there that could not be touched at all. They were kept in the Newlands area, and I was not scheduled to work there often. I was pretty lucky with my elephant assignments because I got to work with the Midland elephants and they were all good with people.

Want to take part in a similar program while earning college credits? Click here to find out how you can study abroad through the available programs at SPC.

An important job we did while volunteering for WFFT in Thailand is creating enrichments for the elephants who live there. Enrichments provide entertainment for the elephants and help them satisfy their need to forage for food as they would in the wild. We made a couple different types of enrichments. One was called a “chandelier” and it was made by stuffing fruit into tires and hanging them from the pavilions in the enclosures. We would line the tires with long pieces of banana trees and tired them using banana string. This made it harder for the elephants to get the food out. Providing them with a challenge increases the quality of their lives. Elephants are intelligent and social beings, therefore they need enrichments and bonds with other elephants to be happy.

Another type of enrichment that we made for them was very easy and fun. We tied corn together by the husks and threw them up into trees and hid them in bushes. We also did something similar to this using pineapples and watermelons and tying them together with banana string that the mahouts made from the left over banana trees. I think the best enrichment project that we had was making floating logs. We used a trunk of a banana tree and hollowed it out. We then placed chunks of fruit and corn inside and tied them in similar to how we did the chandeliers and threw them into the ponds and lakes inside the enclosures. They floated, which was cool to watch as the elephants swam after them and tried to get the fruit out. Some of the elephants would work on the enrichments together and get the food out and share it. Others preferred to work solo, so it was important to have a variety of enrichments in each enclosure.

Click here to learn more about Study Abroad programs available at SPC.