Penn State undergraduates reflect on Malawi fieldwork with ECODRYFOREST project

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For two Penn State undergraduates, July 2025 brought an experience far from campus classrooms. Geography majors Jesse Ehrlich and Cadence O’Brien spent a month in Malawi as part of the ECODRYFOREST project, a U.S. National Science Foundation–funded effort to study the ecological and social outcomes of landscape restoration in Southern Africa.

The $1.3 million ECODRYFOREST project, directed by Assistant Professor of Geography Ida Djenontin, investigates how restoration of dry forest–grassland mosaics affects ecosystems and the people who depend on them. The international team is using ecological field data, social data and remote sensing with community and restoration actors’ engagement to study how restoration initiatives shape biodiversity, carbon storage and community livelihoods, as well as the related trade-offs.

In the field, the students worked mainly on the ecological side of the project, gathering data in both communal forests and agroforestry plots, but they also got exposed to the social data collection processes. Each day of ecological data collection began with mapping and marking study areas, followed by hours of collecting plant samples. The work involved using GPS units to record tree locations, measuring tree height and diameter and cataloging species with the help of local botanists.

O’Brien focused much of her time on grass and biomass surveys. Working alongside a Malawian botanist, she clipped samples, weighed them in the field and prepared them for drying to calculate wet and dry mass. Ehrlich often carried GPS units, recording hundreds of trees within study plots and ensuring the data could be exported and organized later. Both also joined the team in measuring tree biomass, counting stems and branches and noting disturbances in the landscape.

“It was long, physical work, but every site was different,” O’Brien said. “One day we’d be in a plot where the grass had been cleared, which made it hard to collect samples, and the next day we’d be in a forest with tall trees and shade. Seeing those differences across the landscapes was part of what kept it so interesting.”

For students like O’Brien and Ehrlich, joining the project meant not only collecting data but also experiencing daily life in Malawi, from sharing meals with teammates to talking with community members about their land.

O’Brien, a third-year geography student, said the chance to combine her studies with travel motivated her to apply.

“I’ve always been a traveler, but I wanted to experience the world in a way that wasn’t just tourism,” she said. “Tourism can give you snapshots, but research lets you see how people live and how landscapes function. Experiencing the world through research is a whole new way to look at it, and it made me realize how much more there is to understand when you’re part of a team doing this kind of work.”

For Ehrlich, a junior double majoring in geography and community development, those meals went beyond the roadside. He recalled sitting down in village homes where residents cooked for the entire group.

“We had cabbage slaw, pigeon peas and 'nsima,' which is this cornmeal dish that you eat with your hands,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing you just can’t picture until you’re there; eating together with people you’ve only just met but who are welcoming you in like family. On another night I had river trout that had been caught about 30 minutes before we ate it, and it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. The food was amazing, and it really tied me to the place in a way I’ll never forget.”

Ehrlich added that the sense of hospitality revealed the tight-knit character of Malawian villages.

“Everything in the village is self-contained,” Ehrlich said. “They have livestock, farms and even brickmaking all within the community. It felt like a very self-sustaining unit where everyone is part of making life possible for one another. Coming from the United States, where we’re so used to stores and outside supply chains, it was eye-opening to see how much people can rely on their immediate community.”

Both students said the kindness they encountered everywhere made an impression. O’Brien said Malawi lived up to its national slogan.

“‘The Warm Heart of Africa’ is the slogan for the country, and I feel like that’s a perfect description,” she said. “People were genuinely curious about us, they smiled, they asked questions and I never once felt unwelcome. It was a culture of sharing and openness, and that made me realize how different life can feel in a place where people are connected to one another in that way.”

The international composition of the research team also added to the learning. O’Brien worked closely with a Chinese graduate student from Duke University and said she was surprised at how much she learned from colleagues beyond Malawi.

“I expected cultural exchange with Malawians, but I didn’t expect to learn so much about other cultures in a country so far from my own,” she said. “I roomed with Hanshi Chen from China, and we compared our experiences every night. To be in Malawi and learning not only about Malawian culture but also about other students’ perspectives from around the world was such a unique experience.”

The landscapes themselves offered lessons; driving across Malawi, both students saw signs of deforestation linked to fuelwood and charcoal production. O’Brien said it changed how she sees the environment at home.

“You can really see it in the landscape, even just from the car,” she said. “Since I’ve gotten back, I’ve taken the moment to look around in Pennsylvania or New York and notice how the landscape looks different. We don’t have the same need to use trees for fuel here, and that shapes everything about how the land looks and functions. It changed the way that I view my own landscapes.”

Ehrlich said the sharp economic differences he witnessed prompted difficult but important reflections.

“Why am I here living in the U.S., going on this research project, while others are working so hard to make a living in very different circumstances? Being face-to-face with that reality was difficult, and it forced me to think about the roles we inhabit and why," Ehrlich said.

Ehrlich said those lessons were the most valuable part of the trip.

“It broadens my viewpoints,” he said. “It exposes me to ways of living I could never have wrapped my mind around before. Getting to really live in Malawi for a month is valuable beyond words. That’s lived experience you cannot comprehend until you are there, and for that alone I am grateful.”

The research experiences for the undergraduates were supported by the NSF DISES project, the Department of Geography’s Wilson Fund and by the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute.