US uni visitors soak up fresh environment

During the next three months, the Wanganui district will serve as an outdoor classroom for 17 university students from the United States.

Teacher Corinne Deibel said the students were all in their second to fourth years at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.

They were studying subjects ranging from geology to politics.

The students are staying most of January at Quaker Settlement in Virginia Rd, and will do a canoe trip down the Whanganui River this weekend.

After that, they move to homestay and will spend March in the South Island, returning to Wanganui in April.

While in New Zealand they are working on three courses, including water resources and issues in New Zealand, environmental issues in New Zealand and the country's cultural issues.

The Earlham group spend each January in Wanganui, then time at Canterbury University. However, last year's earthquake changed those plans.