The hands-on experience Czuprynski had in Iceland was with the GREEN Program, a short-term travel abroad experience with an embedded curriculum focused on appreciating and learning to tackle environmental sustainability challenges.
“My program in Iceland taught me that experience is the most powerful educational tool,” Czuprynski said. “There’s something about the experiential process that you just can’t teach, and it’s something I feel every student needs.”
Though Iceland was his most recent overseas adventure, Zach grew up experiencing nature face-to-face in his own backyard.
As a child in the rural Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Czuprynski witnessed the spectacle of late summer lightning dancing through the cornfields outside of his living room windows, often followed by walls of rain and booming thunder.
“As a kid, I was scared of lightning because I knew it could strike people and hurt them, though I did not really understand the mere probability of that at the time,” Czuprynski said.
He explored the kinder side of nature, too, on Pennsylvanian hiking trails and the banks of fishing creeks.
By the time he decided to come to Penn State, his initial fear for the destructive capability of Mother Nature had matured to a deep appreciation for the power of earth systems — from plate tectonics to natural disasters. When deciding on a major, he knew his interests were in the natural sciences. He gave meteorology and astronomy a test-run before landing in geosciences, where he enjoys field excursions while practicing earth science.
“It’s like being a kid again and doing science at the same time,” Czuprynski said.
After Czuprynski learned of the Icelandic glacier’s rapid retreat and its impacts, he was inspired to research more about the astonishing changes he observed. As a result of his out-of-the-classroom research, he discovered new passions for sustainability and geothermal energy. His experience in Iceland helped him gain a new perspective on the environmental challenges that face the world, and he hopes to educate the next generation as a teacher in his own classroom after his graduation from Penn State in May 2018.
“One of the coolest things that I think is going to be a powerful tool in education is virtual reality, and I’d love to infuse that in the classroom setting,” Czuprynski said.