(From left) Keith L. Camacho, Associate Professor in the Asian American Studies Department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and instructor for the UCLA Guam Travel Study Program, far left, listens in as UCLA students (from left) Harold Caylao, Veronica Giap, and Kyla Worrell are briefed by representatives of their service-learning organization.

Twenty-five students from the University of California, Los Angeles are on Guam to study abroad over the summer at the University of Guam. UCLA’s first-ever Guam Travel Study Program will span four weeks from July 2 to July 27.

“The program reached capacity prior to the application deadline, and a few students were placed on the waitlist,” said Andrew Bottom, Coordinator of the Travel Study Program at UCLA. “This was an exceptional response for a first-year program.”

UCLA offers its students 25–30 different travel study programs each year to countries in Europe, Asia, South America, and North America. Several of the students who signed up for the Guam program have connections to Guam or other Pacific islands.

(Standing from left) Victor Camacho, Program Officer of Guam Preservation Trust; Aaron Burger with the American Institute of Architects; and Joseph E. Quinata, Chief Program Officer of Guam Preservation Trust kick off their service-learning project with UCLA Guam Travel Study Program students (seated from left) Melissa Aliu, Daniel Luu, and Mishka Caruncho.

In Guam, the visiting students will be involved in two daily classes on the UOG campus, weekly excursions to cultural sites, and research projects with the community organizations Chief Huråo Academy, Guampedia, the Guam Museum, the Guam Preservation Trust, the Håya Foundation, and the UOG Center for Island Sustainability.

The two classes — “Social Movements in Guam and the Pacific,” which provides a theoretical framework for understanding indigenous societies, social movements, and state formations, and “Community-Based Research in Guam,” a service-learning course to serve the Chamorro and wider Guam community — will be taught by UCLA’s Dr. Keith L. Camacho, Associate Professor in the Asian American Studies Department.

Camacho, who received his bachelor’s in English and secondary education from UOG in 1996 and also taught at UOG from 2005–2006, was the lead in creating the program. He also holds a master’s and doctorate in Pacific islands studies and history, respectively, from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The travel study program will count as credit toward the students’ majors.

Joining the inaugural cohort from off-island are UOG students Victoria Diaz, a junior majoring in history, and Daniel Stone, a senior majoring in Chamorro studies.

“These candidates will complement the off-island enrollment in the course because they will provide an insider perspective from Guam,” said Dr. Anita Borja Enriquez, Senior Vice President – Academic & Student Affairs at UOG. “In addition, their work ethic and passion for their island community will give them an opportunity to share what they know while simultaneously learning from Dr. Camacho and their UCLA counterparts.”

UOG is planning on developing study abroad programs for UOG students in the future, Enriquez said. “I will be working with our campus leaders to discuss the opportunities,” she said.

Shannon J. Murphy, Managing Editor of Guampedia, foreground left, and Dominica Tolentino, Director of the Guam Museum, foreground right, get to know the Guam Travel Study Program students who will be working with them for a service-learning course. Show from left are University of California, Los Angeles students Josephine Ong, Gillian Duenas, Jerry Ng, Andrea Min, and Lexi Saelua.