West Virginia students will tiptoe through the tulips this summer when they travel to the Netherlands and Belgium to study Western Europes horticulture, environment and culture.

Students will earn three credit hours while traveling to Brussels, Gent, Brugge and Amsterdam from May 26 to June 5. A highlight of the trip will be the exhibition,”Floriade 2002: Feel the Art of Nature,”a premier horticulture exhibition held in the Netherlands every 10 years. The exhibit is expected to attract 3 million visitors from all over the world.

“I would like to make students aware of other cultures and to help them gain an understanding of the advanced views toward environmental stewardship in highly populated areas of the world,”said coordinator Sven Verlinden, assistant professor of horticulture at the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences. Verlinden, a native of Belgium, hopes to give students a sense of how highly advanced horticulture enterprises are in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The trip will cost approximately $2,280 per student (based on enrollment of at least 20 students) and includes all meals, lodging, entrance fees, air travel and ground transportation. However, the final price will likely be lower to reflect planned fund-raising activities. A final cost will be provided before the first payment is due in February.

A meeting to discuss the trip will be held Thursday, Jan. 24, at 5 p.m. at the greenhouses (located across from the Agricultural Sciences building) on the Evansdale campus. For more information, contact Verlinden at 304-293-6023.