A group of Missouri State students accompanied Dr. Janice Greene of the Biology Department and Dr. Diann Thomas of the Chemistry Department to Quito, Ecuador for a one-week intersession course—“Making the Connections” on August 6, 2012. The course was designed to increase awareness of global connections, specifically between North and South America. The students were exposed to different cultures and discovered threads of commonality, from food to resource consumption. While the main focus of the course was the environmental connection, students also experienced the customs and beliefs of the Ecuadorian society, in particular those of the Quichua tribe. Chemistry Students making the trip were Kari Lea Burgess, Jason Davis, Brett Huntley, Samantha Marshall, Michael Nothnagel, Alyxandria Shibley, and Eric Tague.