Field Trip Class Is the Best Class

Cara Deromedi

Today was different than most days. Sure, it was the same as every Thursday morning in the summer semester, but it was ultimately pleasantly different from the norm. This summer, the cohort of students who joined my program last fall and I were enrolled in a class we have affectionately termed as ‘field trip class’. 

We are all students in the Plant Pathology and Microbiology graduate program, and yet, out of the seven of us, only one or two would be considered field plant pathologists. There’s a sliding scale of people in our department; on one end you have people who go to the field and are very hands-on with the diseased plants, while on another end you have people who will never touch a plant in any of their research. I myself will have to touch a plant eventually (not in a field), but I’ve warned my advisor that we’re going to have to account for the fact that every plant I touch dies into our results. Yes, plant pathologists love dead plants, but we want them to die for the right reason. 

‘Field trip class’ offers new experiences and a greater appreciation for air conditioning. The basic premise is that every Thursday, we visit different crop fields where we get to speak to the people who run them, be it USDA or local farmers. This year has been particularly hard on disease, which is great for farmers, but really sad for us. We do, however, get to have good discussions on the overarching management of the locations and their crops. This is a vital side of the industry that most of us don’t have much - if any - experience in, and it helps further ground our research because, in the end, our research is there to better serve the farmers and protect the crops (even if what we study is also very cool). Simply put, this class provides a level of well-roundedness to our learning that can’t otherwise be replicated in a classroom or lab. It’s one of the most unique classes I’ve taken, and, quite honestly, it’s just fun to go on field trips.