FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – This winter Kimberly Smith, professor in the biological sciences department of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, spent three weeks teaching in Saudi Arabia. Smith taught one of the unique Winter Enrichment courses at the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology. It was a learning experience for Smith as well as for his students.

 The Winter Enrichment Program offers courses in subjects as far ranging as “Do Plants Know Math?” and “Bringing Avatar Faces to Life” taught by Mark Sagar, who built the avatars featured in the movie. The program, with no exams and no fees, was designed for one simple purpose: to enrich students’ experience.

Michael Berumen, former Sturgis Fellow at the University of Arkansas and now assistant professor of marine science at the King Abdullah University, asked Kimberly Smith, his former professor, if he would be interested in teaching a course during the three-week program. A seasoned ornithologist, of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Smith opted to teach a course on birds of the Middle East, a subject he admits he knew very little about. But he learned fast. In his course, he first covered ornithology in general and then the distribution of birds in the Middle East, from the osprey, purple heron and crab plover to the white-eyed gull, found only in the Red Sea region. Smith also gave a presentation on the marine birds and mammals of the Red Sea to a marine biology class taught by Berumen.

King Abdullah University brought 90 scholars and researchers in from around the world for the program. They enjoyed amenities few campuses have: a hotel, mosque, food court, restaurants, museum, supermarket, numerous research buildings, and a golf course with two pros available for lessons. King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud wanted the university on the coast of the Red Sea to be self-contained and, as he wrote, “to create an enduring model for advanced education and scientific research.”

His vision of the university was for it to become one of the top 10 science and technology universities in the world, designed and built to “conserve natural resources and demonstrate by precept and example the value of responsible environmental stewardship.”

After the lectures, Smith and Berumen took their students snorkeling and bird watching along the coast where they spotted birds Smith had never seen before, such as the purple heron. Every class at the just two-year-old campus is taught in English, and every student receives a stipend.

“When money is no object, you can have unbelievable research facilities,” said Smith. “The amount of equipment in their laboratories is mind-boggling.”

Smith is currently studying the migration of birds in South America.