On the Bright Side: Edmeston grad set to climb Mount Kilimanjaro

On the Bright Side

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STEFANIE CORNNELL SITS AT the top of Bald Peak in the Adirondacks in October.

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January 4, 2012

By Mark Boshnack Staff Writer The Daily Star Mon Jan 16, 2012, 10:55 AM EST

A 2009 Edmeston Central School graduate will soon be scaling new heights in a foreign land as part of her undergraduate studies.

When 20-year-old Stefanie Cornnell, a junior at SUNY Oswego, signed up for the Together We Go: Climbing Kilimanjaro course, she knew what she was getting into, she said Friday.

The zoology major has been interested in studying primates since she was in elementary school and always wanted to go to Africa.

She will be traveling with a group of 23 students and faculty Monday from JFK Airport in Queens to Tanzania, where the mountain is located.

The group will begin its eight-day climb of Mount Kilimanjaro on Thursday. After the strenuous hike that will take them to the top of Africa’s tallest peak, the climbers will visit a Masai village and go on a wildlife safari before leaving for home Jan. 15, according to an itinerary.

Cooperstown Central School graduate and State University College at Oswego junior Ariel Powers is also in the class and scheduled to go on the trip. She did not return a call for comment Friday. On the website, oswegogoingglobal.org, a group that supports this and similar travels, the meteorology major said that she hopes to have boosted her confidence and have a better appreciation of her accomplishments, and the culture she is visiting, when she returns.

“I have always wanted to go to Africa, and I saw the opportunity,” Cornnell said. “I’ve always loved traveling, and I thought this would be a good experience.”

As a junior in high school she was a student ambassador in the People to People program, traveling to several European countries, including Ireland, England, France and Belgium. As a freshman in college, she traveled to Spain as a member of the soccer team. Last May, she took a global studies class that traveled to Beijing.

Besides class work, the students climbed in the Adirondack and Catskill mountains to get ready, Cornnell’s first experience with that activity. Now that she is getting ready to go, “I’m very excited and a little nervous,” she said.

Oswego administrator and co-leader of Team Kilimanjaro, Mehran Nojan, said she has climbed similar mountains, but this is the first time she is taking students on such a trip. It is also the first time she has been to Africa. Co-leader Gary Morris made the climb six years ago.

“It’s not an easy trip,” requiring months of training, she said. “It’s a team-building exercise that will teach them when to lead and when to follow,” as well as expose them to a different culture.

The coursework involved learning about hiking as well as the people and geography they will encounter. “Students will come out with a lot of experience,” she said.

Cornnell said that she plans to attend graduate school and do field work with primates. The experience will help her decide whether she wants to return to Africa.

“Whatever happens,” she said, “it will be lifechanging.”