Second-year College of DuPage (COD) student Elliah Chamberlain’s “A Glimpse of Emerald Isle” transported students into Ireland’s rich landscapes and culture through a cross-cultural art exhibition at the Wings Student Art Gallery from Jan. 31 to Feb. 26. Inspired by her travels abroad through COD, she created and displayed over a dozen pieces using mediums such as gouache, acrylic and watercolor.

“When you move through the world with a more creative stance, you open yourself up to more interactions and perspectives,” Chamberlain said. “When I did that in Ireland, it gave me a lot more experiences and cultural immersion than it would have if I was just being quiet, on my phone, or in the corner.” 

Beginning in 2022, COD has offered a two-week horticulture program through the Field Studies and Study Abroad program. The class touches on the relationships between our ecological environment, climate, food systems and food production practices in Irish culture.

“Since the classes I teach are all based on food production, sustainability and ecology, those topics can be very location-specific and very different depending on where we are in the world,” Connie Kollmeyer, Adjunct Faculty in the Sustainable Urban Agriculture program in COD’s Horticulture department said. “I really wanted our students to have the opportunity to learn about these topics more broadly across the globe.”

This past year, 19 students participated in the program, along with Kollmeyer’s co-instructor, Rocio Arevalo. Instead of traveling south, the group explored County Donegal and Bundoran in Ireland. The two-week trip included a variety of hands-on activities designed to enhance student’s understanding of horticulture and sustainability.

““[Ireland] quickly becomes a home away from home for the students, and a place they know they will always be welcomed back to and will find friends there to meet them,” Kollmeyer said.

Chamberlain was one of five students who received the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program through the COD scholarship portal, which supports undergraduates receiving Pell Grants as they study abroad. Her scholarship specifically covered her travel to Ireland with the horticulture program.

‘A Glimpse of Emerald Isle’ was a part of her follow-on project, she said. When accepting the scholarship, you must agree to showcase how the trip has enhanced your educational experience. 

“With the gallery, I just wanted to encourage people to travel and create while traveling, because that’s a huge thing for me,” Chamberlain said. “I would paint in random pubs, on the side of parks. Some people even wanted to buy my work, and I was even commissioned to paint someone’s engagement ceremony.”

While in Ireland, she sketched scenes, took photos and painted on-site, creating around 10 paintings during the trip. After returning home, she continued her work, using the photos she had taken as inspiration for additional pieces to display. One of her detailed works depicts the Irish seaside, with a boat floating across the sunset-plastered shore. For Chamberlain, both travel and art are deeply tied to cultural immersion. 

“I find that if I’m just in the MAC with a bunch of art students, I’m not actually getting any inspiration,” she said. “It’s a pretty niche demographic of people that have very, very niche interests, but art should be all-encompassing. And I want my art to reflect a lot of different facets of life.” 

Chamberlain was homeschooled as a child, with her parents integrating art into every aspect of her education. This early exposure sparked her passion for artistry, she said, leading her to pursue it throughout her academic journey.

“I was really hyperactive, so my mom would bring crayons everywhere,” she said. “Anything we learned about, like science, math or English, she would have me draw what we were talking about to keep me focused. Now, I just always doodle during lectures because it helps me.”

She is currently working toward an associate degree in fine arts and plans to transfer to a four-year university to become an art teacher.

“There was a period in my life when drawing was all that I was thinking about and doing,” Chamberlain said. “I became super self-critical. And I think that was the period in time where I advanced, because I just spent hours every single day drawing and realized how much I enjoyed it and was able to apply it to everything else.” 

For students considering study abroad, the Field Studies and Study Abroad program, including the horticulture program, offers a chance to engage with new cultures in a meaningful way.

“I hope that students make friends and learn and have fun,” Kollemeyer said. “I hope they come back with new ideas and inspiration, but above all, I really hope that students come away with a better understanding of the world and the wonderful, diverse people and cultures in it. I hope they have the chance to expand their worldview and that helps them in countless ways in their lives.” 

The Field Studies and Study Abroad Office is located in the BIC in Room 3520. They can be contacted by calling (630) 942-2356.