Greg Gaston accepted a position in Tanzania, Africa, as a one year instructor at the University of Dar es saalam. Gaston, a UNA professor since 2002, will be teaching at the university as a Fullbright scholar, and will be leaving in the next few weeks.

“I have always wanted to do a Fullbright,” Gaston said. “The world fascinates me and to be able to go and say in a place for an extended period of time is cool.”

Fullbright is a program started by Senator William Fullbright in the 1950s that pays for people to teach in another country for a year, Gaston said. 

“It’s an honor for someone to receive a Fullbright,” said Martin Leavitt, a geography graduate student. “When he gets back, he’ll have more research ideas, class discussions, stories and a deeper understanding of the course work.”

Students outside of the geography department, like environmental biology major Emily Christmas, are also impressed by his new role.

“It’s great for him, but it’s a huge loss to the department,” Christmas said. “But when he comes back, he’ll be more well rounded and more of an asset.”

Gaston has some specific goals for this trip.

“One of the things that we do well here is we teach our students hands-on, how to use the tools that we use as geographers and so we spend a lot of time teaching people how to do things,” Gaston said. “So when they walk out of here they’ve got a skill set. (University of Dar es saalam) has a GIS lab that has no computers.”

He said he plans to take laptops and GIS software to allow students to learn first-hand. 

“There’s an educational theory that says ‘You never learn something until you need to learn it,’” Gaston said. “So by putting them hands-on on the computer, I’m going to sit down and look at them and say ‘Okay, what kind of problems do you see?’”

Josh Holland, a geographic information systems major at UNA, said Gaston’s trip will be beneficial to the University of Dar es saalam. 

“It’s beneficial going to another country to teach what we already know,” said Holland.  “What he teaches will have a profound impact on every aspect of life.”

Although he is staying here, Francis Koti, chair of the geography department at UNA, is working alongside Gaston to build relationships with the University of Dar es saalam. 

“He and I are planning to create a long term partnership between UNA and University of Dar es salaam,” said Koti. “This kind of partnership will pair up UNA students with students (there) to work on projects together, kind of an international collaboration. I think our students will benefit largely from his experiences there.”

He hopes that this partnership will be beneficial to both campus communities, Gaston said. 

“Once you’ve worked with somebody from someplace else, they’re not a stranger,” Gaston said. “It’s hard to get all excited (and say), ‘I hate those people!’ when you know them. The more bridges that you can build for more people, the less conflict there is.”