International Trails Fellows
International Trails Fellows
Pan American Trails International Trails Fellows are advanced graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, or professionals who are given the opportunity to visit an important trails center to study, do research, teach and participate in hands-on trail management with other professionals. While there are limited funds for fellowships at this point, we are working hard to increase what we can offer in the future.
Currently we are funding a small number of teaching/research fellowships for a five-week residency in the White Mountain National Forest and the White Mountain Field School. This includes a teaching fellowship to help with the Environmental Field School college semester field course, a collaboration between Pan American Trails and Binghamton University.
2023 International Trails Fellows
Araceli Gonzáles, Paraguay
Araceli Gonzáles, a professional environmental educator from Paraguay, was one of two 2024 International Trail Fellows who spent two months in the White Mountains National Forest at the White Mountain Field School. Aracel also participated as a student in the White Mountain Field School semester college course. Her final project included leading all students in group project to redesign educational signage on the Falling Waters Trail, part of the Franconia Ridge Loop.
Cesar Aspiazu, Bolovia
Cesar Aspiazu, a doctoral student at the University of Brasilia, was a teaching assistant for the White Mountain Field School semester course and Franconia Ridge Summit Steward.
Supported by the Rey Fund
For the past 3 years International Trails Fellows have been supported by the Pan Amercian Trails Rey Fund.
In Memory of Natalia (Natasha) Luzhkova
The Pan American Trails International Trails program is named after Natalia (Natasha) Luzhkova, who died of has died of COVID-related pneumonia in 2020. Natasha served as Co-Chair of the WTN Americas Trails & Sustainability Committee, and was one of the professionals who participated in the March 2020 Costa Rica Expedition that field-tested Trail Making Rapid Assessment (TRAMP) methodology currently used by Pan American Trails.
Natasha was a researcher at the V. B. Sochava Institute of Geography, and Chief Research Scientist at the Barguzinsky State Nature Biosphere Reserve and Zabaikalsky National Park in Russia.
Before Natasha’s death, she and the other WTN Americas Co-Chair, Nat Scrimshaw, started planning for an information exchange on alpine trail management in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and the mountains in Zabaikalsky National Park, which have some remarkable similarities. The COVID pandemic and geopolitical circumstances intervened, so this has not been possible. We hope someday this scientific and cultural exchange will be possible.
Above: Lake Bailkal in Zabaikalsky National Park with mountains in the background, Lonesome Lake and the Franconia Ridge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Below: Natasha doing field work in her beloved mountains in Zabaikalsky National Park.
Donate
You can donate to International Trails Fellowships or other Pan American Trails programs and projects.