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Traveling Man to Graduate from
After his first year of classes at Southampton College, Saltanis spent part of his summer at a three week Wildlife Management travel course in South Africa and Swaziland where he slept in a Zulu village, ran from a charging rhinoceros and camped near a sleeping leopard. Upon returning he served as an environmental intern at a local Southampton advocacy organization, the Group for the South Fork. “I encountered new environments, experienced new cultures, and gained opportunities for different perspectives on both my culture and myself,” he said. After a semester studying at Long Island University’s C.W. Post Campus in Brookville, N.Y., Saltanis spent his winter break living in an ecovillage, an environmentally friendly community in central Mexico where he trained in consensus skills, group dynamics, and also participated in community service like masonry and constructing a fire-break to stop a raging wildfire. The following semester he traveled to Australia in the seaside community of Byron Bay. “From experiencing different ecosystems, to getting the opportunity to hold a baby wallaby and snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef, my time spent was beyond words.” Instead of returning home, after classes ended, Saltanis continued his adventures in the land Down Under, traveling the continent for almost a month as part of his studies. Restless after a month home and in need for more adventures, Saltanis took another ecovillage course, this time learning Permaculture in Brazil. From Brazil he flew to Ecuador, where he volunteered, earning co-op credit, tracking endangered Andean Bears in the Andes with radio equipment. “Hiking in the cloud forest was unreal, and it was great to work in field conservation efforts,” he said. After spending another semester at C.W. Post, it was off to the Global College Latin America Center in Costa Rica where he studied Spanish, Latin American issues and holistic health, and participated in an independent study of Latin American environmental issues that included volunteering in two national parks. After all these adventures, Saltanis’ next journey will be graduate school at Antioch University New England. Commencement exercises will take place on the Great Lawn at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville, NY beginning at 9:30 a.m. The Class of 2007 includes 957 baccalaureate degree candidates, 1,784 master's degree candidates, 14 graduates receiving the Psy.D. in clinical psychology and 4 receiving the Ph.D. in information studies. C.W. Post’s commencement ceremonies also include graduates from Southampton College and the Southampton Graduate Campus of Long Island University. For more information, visit the commencement Web site at www.liu.edu/cwpcommencement Posted: May 11, 2007 |
Brookville, NY – Unlike some students, whose college experiences are bound by the four walls of a classroom, Peter Saltanis’ education at Long Island University took him to the four corners of the world. Saltanis, who received a B.A. in environmental studies is the valedictorian for the SHC class of 2007, from Long Island University’s Southampton College on Mother’s Day, May 13, 2007. He has taken classes and completed research in eight different countries in three years.| Long Island University | C.W. Post Campus |