WHO WE ARE
The Student Rainforest Fund (SRF) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), educational organization that raises funds though private and corporate donations to help underwrite expeditions to the world’s rainforests for college students who are studying the health professions. These students get invaluable experience and education on the “roots” of their chosen profession. The students learn about medicinal plants, herbs, and botanicals in the world’s greatest pharmacy (the rainforest). They also work closely with indigenous healers in the field, learn about the ecology of the country and the need for fostering environmental stewardship, and get a more holistic approach to healing and medicine that could never be taught in the classroom.

OUR MISSION
To provide college students with the opportunity to explore the natural history of medicine and evoke the “healing edge” of knowledge regarding natural products and phytomedicinals in the world’s greatest pharmacy - the rainforest. To pursue a more holistic approach to the healing of the body, mind and spirit by learning from unique practitioners, and to gain an invaluable international perspective by working with indigenous peoples from different cultures.

2008 Peruvian Amazon and Machu Picchu

VALUES
The SRF team believes that conservation of bio-diversity and the prevention of the extinction of species are ethical efforts for the preservation of all life forms on the planet. We are committed to the preservation of the indigenous peoples who live there. These wonderful and knowledgeable healers, midwives, shamans, and bushmasters are our teachers. We strive to protect not only their environment and traditions, but also their intellectual rights. They have vast and time-tested knowledge of plant medicines and we respect their way of practicing medicine without judgement. We believe that science-based knowledge gained from our profession education and training is also valuable, and our hope is to better integrate conventional with complementary medicine.


Students participating
in a lab practicum
on medicinal plants

VISION
We envision a world where plant life in a natural environment is abundant and extinctions are rare. We recognize that nearly 80 percent of the world’s people (mostly in developing countries) still mainly rely on medicinal plants to treat their diseases and illnesses. We know that 20-25 percent of all pharmaceuticals and drugs carried in pharmacies are still natural products or come from semi-natural sources. We have learned that nearly half of the pharmaceutical manufacturers in the world are making efforts to go back to nature to possibly find new blockbuster drugs. They are risking research dollars for that one in ten million chance that a plant or tuber from the rainforest might produce a drug that can someday cure AIDS, cancer, diabetes, or many other diseases that modern medicine has no cure for. We fear that continued destruction of precious and bio-diverse rainforests may eliminate any chance that these miracle drugs could be discovered.


Belize 2001
Walking the savannah at
Payne's Creek National Park to see the Howler monkeys

NICHE
The SRF is the only organization of its type America that offers college students studying the health professions this unique educational and life-changing experience as an independent organization. SRF is not affiliated with any particular university, foundation or organization, although we work with any school or group interested in our mission and philosophy. The SRF expeditions make the rainforest the classroom and provides an educational experience to the student that is unmatched in any college or university course.
2003 SRF Faculty
Dr. Norbert Pilewski, Dr. Dan Wagner,
Dr. Rosita Arvigo, Dr. Steve Morris