Dr. Carla Norris-Raynbird, associate professor of sociology and director of the women’s studies gender studies program, and three students from Bemidji State University’s TRIO and McNair Scholars programs spent spring break in Louisiana doing coastal restoration work and exploring gulf coast wetlands.

Christopher Boone, a senior in sociology from Raleigh, N.C.; Jordan Morgan, a senior in environmental studies and sociology from St. Peter, Minn.; and Yunuke Nyanamba, a senior in community health and nursing from Bemidji who is originally from Kenya, made the trip along with Raynbird.

The group began their week working with Common Ground Relief to do coastal restoration work in New Orleans’ 9th Ward. From there, they traveled to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium research station for a guided wetlands tour and an opportunity to explore bayou communities damaged during Hurricane Katrina and by other hurricanes since then. 

The trip was funded in part by BSU’s TRIO program, the BSU Diversity Fund, the Department of Sociology, and the women’s studies gender studies program.

Boone, Morgan and Nyanamba will present on their experiences at the 17th Annual Student Scholarship and Creative Achievement Conference on April 6. Their presentation, “Down the Spine of the Mississippi: Our Experience with Coastal and Community Restoration,” will begin at 9 a.m. in Hagg-Sauer Hall 228.

That presentation is but one of several the group has planned to discuss their bayou experience. In late March, they presented at the Center for Natural Resources Economic Policy’s Fifth National Forum on Socioeconomic Research in Coastal Systems in New Orleans, and they will present at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities statewide Student Scholarship and Creative Achievement Conference at Winona State University in April.