Fourteen MA students and three faculty members traveled to Chukotka, Russia in August of 2003. The students divided into two groups with the first, led by DANRD director Gordon Pullar, visiting the Chukchi village of Lorino while the second, led by Professor Mike Davis, went to New Chaplino, a Siberian Yupik village. While in the two villages the students facilitated community planning sessions with the villagers utilizing the “Healthy Community” process developed by former faculty member Larry Dickerson. The travel was made possible by a grant from the National Park Service Beringia Program.

Eight students in the new Rural Development MA program participated in a travel/study experience in August led by DANRD director Gordon Pullar. The travel was made possible as a result of a grant from the National Science Foundation. The students gave a formal presentation at the 12th Inuit Studies Conference at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

They then went on to Copenhagen, Denmark where they participated in group discussions at the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, the Indigenous People's Secretariat of the Arctic Council, the Department of Eskimology at the University of Copenhagen, the National Museum of Denmark, and the Greenland Home Rule Government. The Copenhagen Program was coordinated by RD affiliate faculty member Jens Dahl, who is the director of IWGIA.