About

The Makengue Project blog documents American University students’ experiences as they develop research projects and then travel to Nicaragua during Spring Break.  AU’s University College has partnered with the Makengue Reserve, a 190 acre private nature preserve in the rain forest located along the San Juan River near the Nicaraguan border with Costa Rica, to provide freshman students the unique opportunity of conducting research and presenting their results at an undergraduate research symposium.

The seed for the Makengue Project was planted in the summer of 2012 when University College Director Sarah Menke-Fish met with the Makengue Reserve owner, Becki Cohn-Vargas in San Francisco.  Over lunch, Cohn-Vargas expressed her desire to develop the rainforest rich property she owned in Nicaragua as a nature reserve to promote conservation.  Together, they created the foundation of what would become The Makengue Project.

The inaugural class in 2013 was led by Professor Kiho Kim from the Department of Environmental Science and graduate student Angela Pinaglia from the School of Communication.  Cohn-Vargas along with her husband, Rito Vargas, challenged the students to help define the best way to carry out Makengue’s mission.  The result can be found here in a ten year proposal outlined by the students.

Twelve students enrolled in the Spring of 2014.  Professor Christopher Tudge from the Department of Biology joined the group.  To learn more about their research, check out this Prezi presentation.