This summer, some U.S. students got the chance to spend a working vacation here on the island retreat of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Brooke Kohler and Jephord English were part of an environmental research team from the Summer Mellon Scholars program at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.  Kohler is an anthropology and sociology student who was studying the island’s growing population of green iguanas.   English is majoring in policy studies, and his research involved studying the impact of cattle on the ecology of St. John.

Both students spent time researching the island’s environment, and the history of the people who make it their home.   Other students taking part in this summer program did environmental studies in New Orleans and in New Jersey.

St. John is ideal for this kind of research, not just because a few lucky students get to spend their summer under the bright blue Caribbean sky, but because the U.S. Virgin Islands has a long history of environmental sensitivity and protection.

In the 1950s, American financier Laurance Rockefeller donated a large area of land to the island to develop the Virgin Islands National Park on St. John.    Rockefeller was one of the first people to merge the profitable world of tourism, with the understanding that the natural world needs protection.  He was a pioneer of eco-tourism.  Today, the Virgin Islands National Park covers more than half of the island of St. John, preserving its pristine coastline, forests and animals.   There couldn’t be a better place to be able to study the natural wonders of the Caribbean.

Both Kohler and English intend to continue their work in environmental research, and they hope it will bring them back to St. John someday soon.   You can also come and experience environmental island retreats in USVI yourself.  There is so much to see and do, and St. John rental villas,where you can set up a home away from home for the perfect Caribbean beach vacation.