Courtney Duff Discovers her Calling through Travel
Question: What do Ecuador, Ireland, and Alaska have in common? Answer: They’re all places Courtney Duff has visited during her four years as a student at Keene State College.
“There might not be any coherence to the three places, but Courtney has been able to pull them together,” said Skye Stephenson, director of the Global Education Office at the College. “It’s a wonderful example of a student who is willing to step forward and take advantage of some of the great global learning opportunities that Keene State offers and really be able to use them to find herself personally and professionally.”
Originally drawn to the College by molecules and mountains – an opportunity to do research as a first-year student in the school’s Chemistry Department and a chance to ski at the numerous resorts that blanket the area, the inquisitive senior from Cromwell, CT, was not content just staying on campus. Instead, she embarked on an amazing journey, taking advantage of the College’s Honors Global Engagement and National Student Exchange programs to travel to South America, Europe, and America’s largest state and last frontier.
Always on the hunt for the next adventure that life throws her way, Duff likes things that begin with the adjective “new.” “I just love to try new things, new food, places, adventures,” she said. “I love meeting new people and finding out their perspectives on things and sharing my ideas. So going anywhere new and different where people have a different perspective than mine is just great.”
Duff also answered the door when opportunity knocked. Selected to the Morris-August Honors and Peer Mentor programs at the College, Duff searched out research opportunities. “I don’t just want to go to classes, I want to do things,” she said. “It was a really good experience and got me started working closely with the faculty.”
As a first-year student, Duff, a chemistry major with a minor in biology, worked with Dr. Paul Baures on his synthetic anti-freeze research project and later hooked up with Dr. Jerry Jasinski, getting published after helping him with his research on X-ray crystallography – a big honor for an undergraduate.
As much as Duff enjoyed her classes and research opportunities, she also yearned to travel. When an opportunity came the spring semester of her sophomore year to participate in an Honors Global Engagement trip to Ecuador, she was ready to go.
Duff’s love for travel and adventure didn’t happen overnight. As a child she and her family packed up their sleeping bags and hiked all around the Mid-Atlantic and New England states, including most of the Connecticut–New Hampshire section of the Appalachian Trail. However, there’s a big difference between Ecuador and the Granite State. “I was nervous and excited,” said Duff of her South American trip. “It was the first time traveling without my parents and first time going abroad.”
Undaunted, Duff adapted well. In addition to soaking up the history and culture of Ecuador, Duff was infatuated with the country’s primary cloud forest, an enchanting green kingdom with a profusion of little-studied wildlife and plants located on the slopes of the Andes Mountains. Calling it “one of the most amazing hikes that I ever went on,” Duff said she felt like she’d discovered paradise.
Back at Keene State, Duff had to do some investigating to plan her next adventure, an exchange in Europe the fall semester of her junior year. Despite the limited options due to her major, she found a match – the University of Limerick in Ireland.
Mastering the local lingo and getting used to a half-hour walk to her classes weren’t the only things Duff had to adjust to on the Emerald Isle. Used to a school where professors sometimes penalize students for missing class, Duff was surprised when her chemistry class, with upwards of 200 students at the onset, had dwindled down to about 40 by the third week. According to Duff, everything is posted online, allowing students to work full time and do their school work at their leisure. Highly motivated, Duff had no problems getting used to the alternative way of teaching. And if an issue cropped up, Duff knew where to find her professor.
“I tend to make myself known to professors on the first day” said the very personable Duff. “My chemistry professor was absolutely great. If I had a problem before class I could always find him having lunch at the same booth in the school cafeteria every day.”
Taking a variety of courses geared to students studying abroad, like Irish folklore and traditional music, Duff also did her share of traveling, spending time in Amsterdam, Paris, and London.
Joanna Oko, Duff’s friend and roommate since sophomore year at Keene State, also went on the Ecuador trip and studied in Ireland the first semester of her junior year. “Courtney has a sense of wanderlust about her,” said Oko, a senior from Ansonia, CT. “She’s very much somebody who likes to go out and explore and take advantage of the opportunities that are put in front of her.”
Duff wasn’t done exploring. Following her semester in Ireland, she was ready for her next study-away adventure. “When I went to Ireland I realized I didn’t want to come back [to KSC] yet, and I wanted to see somewhere else, somewhere completely different that I’ve never been before,” said Duff, who narrowed down her choices to California, Hawaii, and Alaska. “So I said, let’s go somewhere where I’d never go on vacation, and I picked Alaska.”
Favoring the snow and cold weather, Duff got more than she bargained for when she arrived in Alaska and realized the temperature was a balmy 30 degrees below zero and there were just four hour of daylight. “I’d leave for class at 9:30 in the morning and see the sunrise and leave my class at 2 p.m. in the afternoon and see the sun set,” she said.
In addition to taking courses in genetics and oceanography at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Duff took several off-the-grid classes, including Rock Climbing and Arctic Survival. She and her classmates had a very unusual final in their Arctic Survival class, spending 12 hours on a lake in North Pole, Alaska. Once there, she and the rest of the class spent the day learning how to build different types of shelters, how to trap and skin rabbits and squirrels, and how to start a fire without matches. A vegetarian, Duff didn’t partake in the rabbit dinner the class made, opting instead to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and bowl of pasta.
Duff was also intrigued by her class in oceanography. Speaking with a teacher’s assistant in the class, she learned about chemical oceanography and quickly realized it was a dynamic field she’d like to pursue, not only in graduate school but also professionally. “It was such a blessing that I went to Alaska, because now I know what I want to do for the rest of my life,” said Duff.
She hopes to head back to Alaska-Fairbanks after graduating from Keene State if she’s accepted into the university’s highly acclaimed graduate oceanography program.
“I think it’s remarkable that Courtney was unsure of what she wanted to do and kept exploring options and found something that she’s passion about,” said Dr. Brain Anderson, a chemistry professor at Keene State and Duff’s advisor. “She doesn’t have the typical background of someone going into oceanography, but again, this is what she wants to do. And I think if she got an interview, someone would say, This is exactly the type of person we want.”
Traveling and studying on three different continents allowed Courtney Duff to grow as a student and, more importantly, as a person. “My freshman year I took Calculus and Physics and Honors Chemistry, and that was a lot of work and I didn’t have a lot of time for play,” said Duff, a Dean’s List student who works as a chemistry and biology tutor through the College’s Aspire and BEST Programs. “But now I found balance between how much I can study and how much I should study.”
“I thought coming to Keene State, I would rely on myself more and less on my parents – and I did to some extent, but when you’re abroad you have to rely pretty much on yourself for everyday things. You learn how to become much more self-reliant than you ever had to before, just out of necessity,” she added. “I’m so happy that I took advantage of the opportunity to study abroad and in Alaska. I feel so much more mature than I did when I left. It was a great experience.”
