When Davis, professor of biology emeritus, retired after the 2022-23 academic year, he came across the journal while cleaning out his office.
“I thought it would be interesting to share with those people who were 20 on that trip and are now midlife,” says Davis. “I thought it would be cool for them to relive the trip day by day and hour by hour, even though their experience was different than mine.”
After a summer and fall of editing and rewrites, the journal was posted online. Read the full journal at wofford.edu/true-tales.
Davis sent an email to the 20 students who accompanied him on the trip to tell them about the journal. He heard from several of them, including one who read the entire journal the first day it was posted.
Dr. Priya Prashad ’99, a pediatric and adult sleep medicine specialist in Hawthorne, N.Y., and assistant professor of pediatrics at New York Medical College, was a senior when she went on the Interim trip. One of her favorite memories of the trip was hiking for miles and snorkeling without a life vest — two things she hadn’t done before.
She says she was not surprised by the colorful stories and the level of detail in Davis’ journal.
“I remember how dedicated he was to it on our trip,” she says. “I was shocked to see myself pictured along with my fellow students 25 years after our trip and to read about our adventures in his journal. Dr. Davis has led so many trips of so many students, but he tracked each one of us down and replied to my email with a humorous story about me that did not make it to the online version. I was in awe of how much he still cared and thought about us 25 years later.”
This past January, Davis participated in the Ecotourism from Rainforest to Reefs Interim course in Belize led by Dr. Chuck Smith, associate professor of biology. Davis kept a journal, and he plans to give a copy to each student who went on the trip before they leave campus in May.
“It’s hard to do,” Davis says. “The time you’re taking to journal, you aren’t being in the moment of where you are. Hopefully they’ll read it, and maybe it will trigger some fond memories for them.”