<h2>Project engages with conservation leaders to make a difference</h2>
<strong>From staff reports</strong>

Beaufort resident Samantha Campbell, a Global Field Program (GFP) student from Miami University's Project Dragonfly, is participating in a new course with conservationists from around the world to launch a campaign for positive ecological and social change.

Miami's Dragonfly team developed the course, titled "Earth Expeditions: Connected Conservation (EECC)," in response to the global health crisis and as an alternative to the summer Earth Expeditions travel field courses that take place in 15 countries throughout the world.

Campbell works as a garden ecology teacher at Lowcountry Montessori School in Beaufort.

Campbell was part of an EECC student team who worked together to help support the ongoing work of Dragonfly's India partner, Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF), a registered non-governmental organization based in Pune, India, working towards biodiversity conservation at the grass root level through stakeholder engagement.

The team wrote an original story featuring animals and plants from the Northern Western Ghats. The story helps create a connection for children to inquire more about their own backyard and for teachers to be able to use it to support their curricula; it also helps connect younger generations to AERF's conservation work.

AERF works through five programs in two biodiversity hot spots within India. Applied research welded with active local participation forms the core strategy in all of the Foundation's programs. The Foundation aims to address the biological diversity loss of a region by building sustainable development models that would also benefit the areas' local populace.

AERF operates through a strong network of organizations. More information about AERF can be found at http://www.aerfindia.org.

Project Dragonfly's Earth Expeditions graduate courses engage people in firsthand educational and scientific research at critical conservation field sites in Africa, Australia, Asia and the Americas. Dragonfly is located in the department of biology at Miami University, a state university in Oxford, Ohio.

Learn more about Project Dragonfly on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/PrjDragonfly.