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JMU juniors Jennifer Miller and Kehl Mandt plant a purple
and gold JMU flag on the world's highest freestanding mountain, Mount
Kilimanjaro.
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Students Conquer
Mount Kilimanjaro
After Mandt
noticed an ad for collegeexpeditions.com, he visited the company's Web
site, which offers college and university students the opportunity to
venture to exotic locations for four weeks of adventure and college
credit. Mandt and his girlfriend, Jennifer Miller, decided that the
company's Africa trip was "the opportunity of a lifetime."
Mandt and
Miller arrived in Africa in June and in four and a half jammed-packed
weeks visited the Pyramids of Giza, the Western Sahara outside Cairo
and areas near Nairobi, Kenya. In Tanzania, they traveled to the Masai
Steppe, Arusha Park, the Serengeti Plain, Ngorongoro Crater and Mount
Kilimanjaro.
"The climb
up Mount Kilimanjaro was daunting," says Mandt. "The wind chill was
below freezing, and the risks and dangers increased each day of the
climb to the peak."
To make the
effort more arduous, Mandt fell ill just before the scheduled Mount
Kilimanjaro climb. "I just had to make the trip, though," he says. "There
was no question."
Mandt and
Miller completed the 19,340-foot climb to the top of Uhuru Peak
on Mount Kilimanjaro and planted a purple and gold JMU flag provided
by Barbara Castello, vice president for university relations.
Mandt and
Miller then inscribed their names, ages and personal messages in a book
provided for all individuals who make it to the top of the mountain.
With this taste of adventure leaving them hungry for more, the duo is
looking forward to a future adventure in Alaska.
Denisse Paz ('03)
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