Back in Sydney

By Melanie Frank

G’day mates and family members, greetings from across the Pacific Ocean. Hope you all are staying warm and cozy as you barrel through the winter months. We here in the other hemisphere are very much enjoying our extended summer weather, tanning away under the sun as we constantly reapply sunscreen and put on our sunglasses and thongs (Australian slang for sandals). As you all must have read from Katy’s blog entry we had an adventurous and exciting weekend at the Blue Mountains. Back in Sydney, we are preparing for our next big excursion, which will take us north to Wollombi Aboriginal camp for a few days. I am sure you all are as unfamiliar with the topic of Aboriginal culture and history as we were before heading down under. Over the past three days, we received lectures on Aboriginal culture from two different Aboriginal women. One of them emphasized that being Aboriginal is not about the way one looks but about culture and where you come from. But before I get into the contemporary life of Aboriginal Australians, I would like to rewind and highlight some historical facts that have made Aboriginals what they are today.

A little over two hundred years ago, the first fleet of European convicts and marines arrived in Australia and claimed the land to be terra nullius (meaning land of no one). At that time, the Europeans did not even consider the Aboriginals living throughout the land to be humans! They justified their beliefs by claiming that they were uncivilized because they were unsettled nomads who never improved and conquered the land in which they lived. The Aboriginals were indeed nomads, but in no shape or form were they uncivilized. In fact, looking back on the way the European settlers violently treated their convicts for stealing a loaf of bread makes me feel that the “white fellahs” were the uncivilized ones.

We've learned that Aboriginals are deeply attached to the land. They do not wish to own the land for they believe that Mother Earth owns them. Throughout our classes I may not have agreed with their beliefs of a rainbow serpent coming out of the Milky Way and shedding its colors throughout the land, inhabiting it with its first people (which they believe are themselves). On the other hand, I can appreciate their respect for our Mother Earth. Much of what the Aboriginals abide by comes from the idea of living sustainably with the Earth, never taking more than you need, appreciating, respecting and living in balance with our world; that I can live by. The Aboriginals lived a nomadic life style in order to never over-harvest an area and to find more water once droughts hit. Because of the crude and unintelligent description of the inhabitants of this land, throughout Aboriginal history they were constantly being driven away from the settler sites. To make things worse, eventually Aboriginal children were taken from their families and sent to missions where whites tried to breed their beliefs and lifestyle out of them. This time in history was called the time of the Stolen Generations. Thousands of children were taken from their homes and families. They lived lives unloved and objectified by the new settlers, so understandably, some succumbed to alcohol and drug abuse. The discrimination and loneliness these people endured has been felt by every generation since, and it is because of this unsuccessful, illegitimate scientific experiment that many Aboriginals today are confused about who they are in society and where they come from.

It is not a happy history, but it is an interesting one. It was a fascinating topic to be discussed when Australia Day (January 26^th-the day the first fleet of convicts and marines arrived to Sydney lead by Captain Arthur Philip) was celebrated during this week. The day proved to be quite educational. In small groups we divided up to explore the many celebrations taking place throughout the city. Unlike the people who celebrate America’s 4^th of July, not everyone is eager to celebrate the “establishment” of this country. As you might guess, Aborigines have difficulty accepting this as a day of celebration. Instead they view this day as Survival Day or even better Invasion Day. Although they do not wish to rejoice in the day their land was brutally taken away and their people were abused, they do come together to celebrate their culture and history. At Victoria Park near our residence, their Aboriginal flags waved through the air. Music, traditional dancing, painting and more sprawled across the park creating a sense of happiness, community, and pride.

Wanting to catch the rest of the city’s celebration, many of us made our way down to places like Hyde Park and The Rocks. I made it to both venues, which were filled to the brim with happy Australians tattooed with temporary flags on their cheeks and arms, waving their flag proudly as we all danced to free music. My group made it to The Rocks as the sun began to set, and with the Sydney Opera house glowing a hint of orange in the background of the concert stage, we relaxed in the grass and took in the moment together. With smiles everywhere, it seemed everyone was out of their houses and offices to barbeque with friends or venture to the endless free events taking place everywhere you went. As the night came to an end, we all (and when I say “we”, I don’t just mean us LC students, but EVERYONE living near or around Sydney) managed to make our way down to Sydney’s Darling Harbor, filling up every nook and cranny. Down at the pier, we were bedazzled by a light show with sailboats and a spectacular performance of fireworks! I’m telling you, the colors of the rockets were everywhere. The sky was filled with every color imaginable and I was blown away by every snap, crackle and pop. If you want to see a good fireworks show, you had best get out of the US and come to Oz. They know what they are doing here.

In all, it has been a wonderful last few days. The combination of the proud Australians and the resilient Aborigines touched a full range of emotions for me. I wish you all could be here to experience it with us, but since you can’t, here are some pictures for you all to enjoy. We may miss you guys over at the other end of the world but I can assure you all we are having lots of fun and learning a ton! Enjoy the pictures!

Victoria Park's Survival/Invasion Day Festival

Aboriginal artwork at Victoria Park festival

Victoria Park Invasion/Survival Day

Hyde Park Australia Day Festival

Hyde Park Australia Day Music Festival Stage

The hunky/hippy folk bluegrass fiddler playing
at Hyde Park Music Festival. (Notice his kind
eyes and sweet smile behind his gnarly beard).

The Rock Australia Day Music Festival

(Sydney Opera House in the background)

Darling Harbor Sailboat light show- Australia Day

Mountains and Caves and Snakes, Oh My!

By Katy Erlich

Hello family and friends,

Our introductory day in the Blue Mountains provided us with highly detailed insight into the vast diversity of biota inhabiting this gorgeous part of the continent, courtesy of the encyclopedia-like Howard as our guide. The mountains themselves are actually uplifted plateaus with deep gorges formed by rivers, and the misty blue haze that blankets the range comes from particulates released by the myriad eucalypt trees. But, as we soon discovered, the complexity of the land doesn’t stop there.

Come Sunday, we assembled our day packs at the Eco Lodge, hopped on our charter bus, and visited the mind-boggling Jenolan Caves. Formed by a combination of tectonic and geological activity as well as a once-enormous underground river, the caves are absolutely breathtaking. Metamorphosed limestone comprises this underground labyrinth, producing tiny passages traversed, incredibly, by the original spelunkers, as well as enormous chambers dubbed “The Cathedral” and “Persia”. We were treated with a virtual concert from speakers installed in The Cathedral, although live concerts can take full advantage of the naturally excellent acoustics of the chamber. What our guide Ian fondly referred to as “decorations” are not lacking either; stalactites and stalagmites protrude from above and below, some as large as trees. In combination with the gentle dripping of water through the ceilings from the land above, crystals of calcium carbonate form delicate structures that resemble brain coral as well as stained glass.

And the craziest part about all of this? The caves are still not completely mapped out. The underground rivers are deep enough in some areas to snorkel, and in 2009 an intrepid couple discovered an entirely new section of the cave. The Jenolan Caves were first explored in the mid-nineteenth century, and nearly two centuries later we are still discovering new hidden spaces.

After exiting the deep underground and grudgingly letting our eyes re-adjust to full sunlight, we took our lunch at the nearby river called (and I am dead serious) The Long, Low, Horrible, Flat Thing. The name is very deceiving. Not only did the river offer us a cooling place to rest, a short waterfall and its rock pool below provided an opportunity to cannonball into extremely cold (or refreshing, depending on how you look at it) water. And just when we thought the day couldn’t get any better, nature presented us with a rare gift.

We saw a platypus. A real, wild platypus. To give you an idea of how incredible this was, our trip coordinator Nat, a native Australian, says that she has been actively trying to spot a wild platypus her entire life with zero success until Sunday. We must have watched it pop up for air and swim back down for at least ten minutes. And not five meters off the bank, we also had our first fatally poisonous snake sighting! Yep, we’re in Australia.

After a delicious dinner that included birthday cake at the Eco Lodge, we learned from Howard how the ecology of Australia has changed since colonization and settlement. Many species that were once soundly established across large areas of the continent are now endangered or extinct, and the list of threatened species is enormous. Much of these effects are caused by potentially climate-altering human farming practices as well as the introduction of non-native species. Although there are extensive conservatory efforts imposed in every state, it is clear that much of the character of Australia’s environment has been permanently changed since European settlement.

So, on to a cheerier topic. Our nighttime activities included a campfire and some incredible stargazing. While there are constellations that are standard to the northern hemisphere, such as Ursa Major and the northern star in Ursa Minor, the stars in the southern hemisphere form constellations that I had never seen before. The Southern Cross sits just above the horizon and twinkles in the arm of the Milky Way while the ghost of the Crab Nebula watches from an inconceivably long distance away. Looking up at a star-lit sky is one of my favorite things to do back home, and the southern hemisphere’s night sky was an entirely new playground.

After some much-needed sleep, we partook in parrot feeding Monday morning. With handfuls of sunflower seeds and just enough patience, we were able to attract the colorful birds and hand-feed them. Having a wild parrot land on your open palm is a pretty special experience, if nothing else because it gives you a close-up look at their highly dexterous beaks and how they use them to crack open sunflower seeds, get at the meat inside, and discard the shells in less than a second.

From the Eco Lodge, we then took a tight path that meandered along the face of the mountain, and slowly we descended into the gorge. While we started our hike in a dry eucalypt biome at the top of the mountains, the increasing humidity as we traveled further down gave way to wet eucalypt forests and finally a rainforest. The remarkable green that pervaded every plant reminded me a bit of Portland’s rich biota, although the abundance of archaic plants such as ferns likewise gave the valley a Jurassic Park feel. And of course, what would a hike through the bush be without another poisonous snake sighting? At one point, Nat saw a tiger snake. There was life everywhere in the rainforest, down to the last moss-covered log. Jumping across rocks to traverse the snaking river, we made our way towards a shallow waterfall that dropped off into the bottomless gorge below. The glassy water provided a cooled place to lunch as well as take in the magnificent view of the Blue Mountains. Massive walls of metamorphosed sedimentary rock reached above us, shielding the valleys from the onslaught of the Australian sun and providing a niche for such a lush array of life.

And the steep climb back up? Let’s just say it touched on a full range of emotions.

We were truly lucky to be able to experience the Blue Mountains in the way that we did. From the spectrum of life inhabiting the topsoil to the bowels of mountains, we got a first-hand look at the structures shaped by nature in a land that seems so untouched when compared to the cities we’re used to. The land is literally a testament to time and the forces of physics, and its native inhabitants are products of having to adapt to an unforgiving climate. This continent is amazing. We are all so delighted to become acquainted with it from multiple perspectives, especially when it means we get to hike a rainforest and see a live platypus.

All photos taken by Katherine Erlich unless stated otherwise.

The Blue Mountains. The blue haze that can be seen from far away is formed from particulates released into the air by the vast eucalypt forests.

The Jenolan Caves. The snaking pattern that can be seen on the ceiling of the Great Arch entryway was formed over eons by the relentless grinding of water.

The Jenolan Caves. The massive chamber named "The Cathedral has excellent acoustics, making it a great place to hear live concerts. This photo is courtesy of Kathryn Hart Wlodarczyk.

Parrot Feeding at the Eco Lodge. These little guys loved the sunflower seeds and seemed surprisingly comfortable around humans. This photo is courtesy of Hanah Goldov.

Hiking in the Blue Mountains. The paths we took were gorgeous but would have been very difficult to traverse at some parts had there not been stepping stones and railings installed.

Hiking in the Blue Mountains. The rock formations we saw are both absolutely incredible and support the wildlife of the forest.

Hiking in the Blue Mountains. Jurassic Park, no?

Into the Bush

By Jared Delahaye

Greetings all, Jared here to continue reporting on this Australian adventure.  We've just wrapped up our first official week of classes.  This Friday our lectures were done by a biologist who discussed the flora and fauna of the country.  Because of the natural environment of Australia, notably its extended geographic isolation and areas of arid climate, evolution has favored a unique set of both plants and animals.  The platypus and echidna, for example, are two creatures that fall into a subset of mammals endemic to the country.  This subset is the monotremes, characterized by the fact that they lay eggs as opposed to all other mammals which have live births.  Similarly, many marsupials, like kangaroos and wombats, thrive exclusively here as well.  Following this broad overview, the professor touched on some of her current work involving plant-herbivore interactions.  For example, one study looked at how possums change their diet when provided with different combinations of cineole, the main toxin in eucalyptus leaves.  The animals ate the best when provided with a combination of a cineole-containing food as well as another food with a different toxin.  I hope the inclusion of personal research as applied to the lecture topics continues because it was interesting to get an idea for what the professors here work on outside of teaching.  As a biology major, I felt the most in my element in terms of subject matter for these lectures.  With the wide variety of majors represented on this trip I think everyone will be weaving in and out of their academic comfort zones as should be the case for the liberal arts.


Following the lecture we took a trip to the zoo, an appropriate experience to complement the morning in the classroom.  We traveled shortly on a ferry from the harbor which was great.  The weather was ideal: warm and clear skies, both of which put the surrounding city on display perfectly.  It also opened up a more dynamic, postcard-friendly view of the Sydney Opera House.  Once we arrived at the zoo we rode a gondola to the top entrance and began to explore.  Obviously the native animals were a must-see, but I was able to spend some time with giraffes, lions, and elephants to name a few.  The coolest part of the Australian critters was an area where kangaroos, emus and koalas were out of cages and moving about on and around a circular footpath.  I had never been so close to zoo animals, let alone kangaroos, so it was definitely unique.  

Part of the group on a ferry to the zoo

Dick getting his learn on at the koala display

View of Sydney from the top of the zoo

Two red kangaroos chilling in the open area

In the evening we attended another Sydney Story, mentioned in the previous blog post by Dick. This particular story was by a folk artist who is currently doing historical research about different neighborhoods in Sydney.  He combined photographs, amusing songs and other information gathered to create palpable, humorous representations of King's Cross, the red light district, as well as other areas. 

The next day we headed west to the Blue Mountains joined by Howard, an environmental scientist who narrated our journey with a plethora of knowledge that has still yet to run out.  As much as I have enjoyed exploring Sydney thus far, I was quite excited to get away into the wild bush.  Our first stop was a botanical garden where we were guided through some of the larger native Australian flora.  It was interesting to learn about how nearly all of the trees and bushes have some sort of specific adaptation to survive in the dry climate.  Our guide Allen shared an anecdote about one such tree, the bottle tree, presumably named for its wide, thick trunk.  The aboriginals took advantage of the tree by drilling a hole in the trunk to extract some of the water, but the later white settlers would hack at the same type of tree until water literally gushed out.  The former technique did little to affect the tree's survival while the latter was much more destructive, effectively killing it.  Even beyond this view into land use practices, I felt this was a simple way to represent the overall differences between the Aboriginals and British settlers as is becoming ever more apparent through our lectures thus far.

Following the botanical garden we continued on to Scenic World, a tourist attraction perched on the edge of multiple national parks coming together in a huge forested valley.  The area of the parks makes up to 3 million acres, prompting U.S. State size comparisons, Alabama in this case, which have come up a surprising amount of times so far.  I guess it's to be expected when the locals see the attempts at mental conversions from metric to feet.  We took a small enclosed trolley on railroad tracks downhill to get farther into the basin.  It was a short but intense ride filled with Indian Jones music (seriously) and a peak descent angle of just over 50 degrees, which felt nearly vertically and quickly explained why the seats were so reclined.  There was a beautiful overlook at the bottom of the trolley that I feel comfortable describing as breathtaking.  It was my first look at the expansive wilderness that makes up so much of the country.  Howard guided us on a short walk around the basin as well as one final jaunt down a separate walking path, passing along knowledge about the trees and other plants throughout.

The view of the basin from the bottom of the trolley

We finally arrived at our accommodations: Jemby Rinjah, a series of large, rustic cabins connected by wooden walkways early in the evening where we enjoyed a catered meal of fish and chips.  Having been warned that this is to be the best accommodations on the trip and tired as I am from the days of traveling and hiking, I'm taking this opportunity to sign off.

-All photos courtesy of Allison Perry

Just Like Chicken

Brought to you by Dick Burnam-Fink . . .

Did you know that Australia is the only country where you can eat the coat of arms? Tonight I took the first step toward that endeavor and ate a kangaroo steak for dinner. For those readers who haven't had kangaroo let me tell you, it is delicious. My fellow roo-diners and I described it as a chewier lamb, and I thought it tasted a bit like beef jerky. Although this has been the most recent of my Australian adventures, every other experience so far has been equally enjoyable...

It's hard for me to describe just how amazing this trip has been so far, but the least I can do is tell you what we've been up to. Yesterday we had the day free; some of the group went to Coogie beach and the nearby pool, while others checked out an exhibition on sharks at the Maritime Museum and a collection of Annie Lebowitz's (of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fare fame) photographs at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Did you know that sharks have been swimming in the oceans for 400 million years? That's 200 million years before dinosaurs roamed the earth! To just walk around the city and end up seeing two fantastic exhibitions is a perfect example of the ease with which Sydney offers up its cultural bounty. Although I didn't go to the beach, those who did came back with smiles on their faces and tales of great swimming and tide-pools. It’s only a 40-minute bus ride, so I'm hoping to go after class one of these days.

In the evening we attended an informal story telling by an aboriginal woman from Sydney, Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grosvenor. She reminded me of a grandmother, gushing about her family and sharing stories of her childhood. It was fascinating to hear her express a full range of emotions about Australia, from complete awe at the land's beauty to anger at the unjust treatment of her people (I suspect this won't be the last time we'll hear such grievances). Rhonda also had a fantastic voice, regaling us with old Elvis songs in between her stories. It was a lovely end to a fun day of unstructured and unintentional learning.

Today it was back in the classroom bright and early to learn about the European settlement of Australia. You probably already know that Australia was originally a place where Britain sent convicts (166,000 between 1788 and 1868). While this is true, it is important to keep in mind that many of these convicts were being sent for petty crimes such as pick-pocketing or stealing bread. The true crime may have been ignoring the roughly one-million Aboriginal people who inhabited Australia at the time, declaring the land to be "terra nullius" in order to colonize it without going through the time consuming process of treaty creation. Our professor pointed out that Australians have been defined by their battles on the frontier, while Americans are defined by their battles for independence. Some have argued that this is why Australians embrace egalitarianism and the concept of mateship, while Americans seem to focus on the ability of the individual genius.

The afternoon was spent touring the Hyde Park Barracks, a regal sandstone building designed and built by and for convicts in 1818. It was fascinating to learn that although it was a penal colony, Sydney convicts could trade goods with the free people in Sydney, and many were skilled craftsmen and laborers. I guess it wouldn't make sense to try and build a successful colony by filling it with only murderers. We even got to lay in the hammocks like the prisoner’s slept in; I thought they were pretty comfy but I'm sure if I was sleeping next to a murderer with no air conditioning and a back still bleeding from lashings it would be a different story.

The rest of my afternoon was spent playing frisbee in a nearby park; if there's one thing Lewis & Clark students know how to do it’s throw a disk! I even saw a group of men playing cricket, which I had never seen in real life before. For any concerned parents reading this, let me assure you that we’re all wearing sunscreen, eating our vegetables and washing behind the ears. That’s all I really have to blog about; next time I check in with you all I hope to have tried some Emu, completing my quest to eat a country's coat of arms.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some photos to give you a visual experience of our time here:

Drew checking out a shark jaw; it was around five feet high!

The group entering Hyde Park Barracks; not a bad looking place for a bunch of prisoners!

Just taking a nap . . . convict style!

Cricket in the park!

Circular Quay and downtown Sydney. The Museum of Modern Art is across the wharf from the Sydney Opera House.

First Student Entry

Dear family and friends, 

Here's our first student-written entry. Each of the 16 program participants will contribute 2 entries during our time in Australia. 

Enjoy!

Andy Bernstein, program leader

Author: Marni Bates

Hey, everyone!

So here we are in Sydney, Australia! Let me recap what we’ve been through, okay?

Well, by the time everyone arrived at Arundel house (this fantastic dorm-like place where everyone has their own room) the general mood was exhausted excitement. I think for a lot of people it was just starting to sink in that they were on a different continent where everything is expensive and the Internet sucks. Really. The Internet is shockingly bad in this country. They charge you by the megabyte. So don’t be offended if you don’t hear from children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews/friends as often as you would like—it’s not our fault! I think most of us were shocked by just how hooked in to the Internet we are. We kept trying to get our Macs to work and ended up staring at the screens and growling our frustration as we clenched our fists. Apparently, someone is going to give us a lecture that will explain why the Internet is so crappy here—I guess some businesses don’t want to lose their monopolies.

Sounds just like the U.S. right?

Anyhow, mainly we got the lay of the land, moved into our rooms and went grocery shopping. I’d like to take a moment to say how impressed I am with our food selections. I think if you handed the average American college student $100 and told them to make it last a week they would return loaded down with chips—of both the potato and chocolate variety. But a bunch of us decided to go communal so throughout the Coles (the Australian version of Fred Meyers) you could hear us calling out, “I’ve got the tomatoes! Hey, what about a cucumber?” and “Ooh, mushrooms.” Hopefully, we weren’t too annoying. The results have been delicious.

I think it’s surprising everyone how even the little tasks like going to a supermarket can be exhausting here. Not just because of the heat and humidity (although both have been pretty intense when we are accustomed to rainy Portland weather) but because the little things we took for granted are different here. People drive on the wrong side of the street. Don’t even get me started on the weird money here. While it’s cool that the bills are made out of plastic so that they are machine washable and super pretty (America, get on this!), the coinage is ridiculous! The twenty-cent coins are enormous and the two-dollar coins are tiny. I have definitely tried to pay for things only to discover I was offering five cents instead of five dollars. Embarrassing American moment for Marni.

There is also no tipping here—something that really confused us when we went out for Thai food. Of course then we learned how much people are paid here and that shut us up pretty quick. Even the worst of the jobs here rake in $15 an hour! One of the Australian students at the Arundel house said that she makes $25 an hour helping to manage the place. Amounts like that sound outrageous to us but it is an expensive country so I’m guessing it lives up to the phrase “easy come easy go.”

Anyhow, the next day was our first day of school. Rather a strange concept as we boarded a bus and got a tour of Sydney. It’s beautiful here.

This is the view from Arundel house. Spectacular. All photos in this blog entry are brought to you courtesy of Kathryn Wlodarczyk.

We passed a number of cool things—I don’t have the time or energy to describe each statue, park and building. But all of us were drooling over some of the houses here. Interesting architecture + incredible view of Sydney harbor = awesomeness. Even I can do that math.

One of the highlights was definitely the Sydney Opera House.

It was really neat to finally be able to experience this iconic place in person. I think it’s interesting that even though it has been open only since 1973, the Sydney Opera House represents Australia the same way that the pyramids represent Egypt and the Eiffel Tower represents France.

It also has over one million tiles on the roof.

Cool, right!

Our fearless leaders: Nat, Andy and Philip.

Another group shot. Expect a lot of these. The good news: our group is fantastic.

We also find time to have fun no matter where we are.

Then we hit up the beach!

Seriously. The beach. Bondi beach.

And this was the view we were met with:

I could definitely get used to this.

I would say that spending the first day of a new semester enjoying the tepid water of the ocean and the super soft texture of the sand sends this day in Australia right off the charts for awesomeness.

But for all of you academically minded individuals who are wondering why exactly we are receiving college credit, never fear! The next day we were in a classroom learning all about plate tectonics and the formation of Australia as a country. Did you know that all of Australia is safely on a plate? Neither did I. This means that Australia isn’t about to go crunching into another land mass on a plate and have to deal with mountain ranges springing up. No earthquake faults for Down Under. Cool, right!

We also listened to a fascinating talk about the migration of mankind to Australia. There are several theories as to how this happened, and let me tell you, the scientists take it seriously here. Much debate over how, when and where humans crossed into Australia. The one thing they can agree on is that they had to cross over somehow—which isn’t much as far as common ground goes. I’d tell you more but . . . I want to finish this entry and the best is yet to come!

We went to a performance by Anh Do (Wikipedia him. So freaking cool!), which really left an impression on us. He is a comedian who fled from Vietnam and moved to Australia with his family. His story is just insane—his dad pretended to be a guard in order to free his uncles from a prison camp. Then the family escaped on a tiny raft when they ran into pirates! Anh Do was not only hilarious (his story about showing up to his engagement party with a roasted pig had all of us cracking up) but his message was really inspiring. I think we all left with a few sayings spinning in our heads: Just take a crack at it and see what happens. And there are only two times: now and too late.

Now I have to turn in this blog before it’s too late!

Sincerely,

Marni

Everyone's arrived safe and sound . . .

Everyone's made it to Sydney safe and sound. Tomorrow we begin exploring the city.

Also, starting in a few days, students will be taking turns creating posts for the blog.

Signing off for now,

Andy Bernstein, program leader