It’s a month after graduation and I’m packing a bulky headlamp and an elaborate first aid kit into the crannies of my suitcase. Unlike my pals, I am not uprooting my life to a glamorous new city and entering a consulting job with the promise of a great future. I am going to the West Indies to fulfil a sustainable beekeeping internship.
I am unqualified for this position. I recently graduated with a Bachelors of Politics and a concentration in Comparative Political Economy (which means I never took Intro to Biology), I have no experience beekeeping, and my knowledge of the Italian honey bee is limited to ouch it stings and wow, this female society is brilliantly organized!
But my inexperience never deterred me from pursuing what I want. In the spring of 2018, I embarked on an environmental science study abroad program in Costa Rica. I happened to be present when the Pitzer Firestone Center received its first hives of Central American stingless bees. The beekeepers held a workshop about the cultural significance and hive management systems for stingless bees. I was utterly fascinated. I returned to the States with the intention of working with bees. So when a friend of a friend notified me of an opportunity to work with bees in Jamaica, I jumped to apply!
