Report on Activities from Orange Coast College 2023 CCIE Institutional Grant (submitted by Karen Baker)

Thank you so much for the CCIE scholarship in support of developing the Coastal Survey of Scotland study abroad program offered at Orange Coast College. Three faculty members in the marine science department spent two weeks in June 2023 identifying sites to visit as well possible accommodation choices for our program scheduled for summer of 2024. The $3000 provided by CCIE was used to offset the cost of roundtrip airfare for three instructors from LAX to Edinburgh Scotland via Emerald Airlines at $1200 per person. We scouted the Scotland coastal landscape for historical, cultural, but most importantly scientific activities related to marine science. We will be collaborating with Scottish Oceans Institute (https://soi.st-andrews.ac.uk/) with St. Andrews University where we will spend the first couple of weeks of our 2024 program, and also with Scottish Association for Marine Science (https://www.sams.ac.uk/) in Oban with University of Highlands and Islands for our final week. We developed a course map to work out the itinerary for the 28 days program (see attached). Upon returning home we began working with Education Travel Adventures (https://www.etadventures.com/) as our service provider for logistical support. While we scouted all of the site visits, accommodations, and other support, they will be handling all activities regarding payments, transportation, insurance and activities at each of our locations. To market the program at Orange Coast College, we developed advertisement materials (see poster below) and we were able to advertise within the first week of the Fall semester 2023. We initially planned four informational meetings but after the first meeting the program was filled to capacity of 30 students and we now have a wait list of 20+ students.