E A RT H C O N N E C T I O N S
Celebrating our shared dream of a better tomorrow
PRESIDENT’S
CORNER
Dear friends:
December 7 was an emotional and historic day for us: our 20th
commencement ceremony! With this 2012 graduating class, we
now have more than 1,700 alumni cultivating well-being in their
countries and around the world. Since our first graduation, we
have grown from a regional institution with students from just
eight countries, to an international university with students and
alumni from more than 30 countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia
and Europe. It is thanks to you, our supporters and donors, that
EARTH has achieved this milestone.
Through our alumni we (you and EARTH) are improving social,
environmental and economic conditions in the tropics and beyond.
One of many examples of this contribution is the work of EARTH
graduates, Gustavo Manrique and José Javier Guarderas (’96,
Ecuador), who this past October engaged more than 100,000
young Ecuadorians in a Guinness World Record-setting recycling
and environmental awareness campaign (read more in our News
Briefs section).
Your gift to EARTH is a gift to the Earth and cultivates a
more sustainable, just and prosperous world. To express our
appreciation, our students, faculty and staff wanted to share with
you the feelings of the holidays through a one-of-a-kind music
video with an original song written and performed by a student
African-Reggae-Caribbean band called Tribu. Join us at www.earth.
ac.cr and experience the joy of the holidays at EARTH.
We warmly thank you for your support during the year, and we
wish you and yours very happy holidays.
José Zaglul
The power of
shared dreams
Just as a fabric woven with many threads is stronger than a single
strand, shared dreams better endure the test of time.
Aparicio Acosta Mendoza (‘12, Panama) understands this well.
With his degree in hand and many ideas in mind, he is ready to
enhance people’s lives in Chiriquí, the indigenous Ngöbe Buglé
community where he grew up.
Aparicio came to EARTH four years ago, thanks to a scholarship
from Panama’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
He attributes his success to having set a clear goal at the beginning:
“I knew what I was going to achieve, and many people gave me
their vote of confidence. I never gave up; I always kept in my mind
my objective and my family. I was determined and sought out help;
I always took an active role.”
Aparicio’s capacity as a leader of change now allows him to return
to Panama with the knowledge and energy to advise the small-scale
farmers in his community and help them put their entrepreneurial
plans into practice. These families will also have a better quality
of life, with electricity, more comfortable homes and innovative
techniques to sustainably develop the subsistence agriculture they
have practiced for years.
For his graduation, Aparicio’s mother, uncle and cousin travelled
to EARTH’s campus. It was their first time leaving Panamanian
soil. They are thankful for the scholarship that gave Aparicio the
opportunity to study and enormously proud of his achievements.
He is not only the first in his family to attend university, but he is
also one of only two graduates of his technical agricultural high
school to study at a university level and the only one in his class
to have received a scholarship.
“I am very thankful for the opportunity that I had to enroll at
EARTH to continue my studies,” he shares. “I deeply appreciate
MEF’s gift, which allows me, today, to be a professional. It is a joy
to me, to my family, and to all those waiting for me in my country.
Thanks to the support of MEF, today I feel like a new person, with
the capacity to face any challenge.”
Empowering a young person like Aparicio is perhaps the greatest
investment we can make in our future. Visit http://www.earth.ac.cr/
support-earth to give to the EARTH Opportunity Scholarship Fund
today.
Aparicio Acosta Mendoza
(‘12, Panama)
The campus buzz
EARTH’s gift to you and the world
As the holidays bring the year to a close, “There’s a feeling
in the air / This feeling is everywhere / Season comes, season
goes,” sings Tribu, the African-Reggae-Caribbean band created
by EARTH University students. The group formed two years
ago, bringing together voices and music from around the world.
These musicians are students of agronomy who see and feel the
powerful connection between their art and agriculture. As a token
of gratitude for your generous donations and unfailing support
and encouragement, we are excited to share the gift of their
first recorded song, “Christmas Feelings.” To you and your loved
ones, “From the depth of our heart, we wish you a very Happy
Christmas” and holidays! Open here: www.earth.ac.cr/mygift.
Retired Cummins chief, Tim Solso, to
lead Board of Directors
In its October meeting, the EARTH University Board of Directors
named recently-retired Cummins chairman and CEO, Tim Solso,
as its Board president. He will succeed Costa Rican molecular
biologist, Pedro León, who served in the position for the maximum
two terms.
“We are so pleased that Tim Solso, with his vast leadership
experience and exemplary commitment to EARTH, has agreed
to take on this critical role as the University embarks on a new
strategic plan,” remarked León, who will continue to serve the
board in a leadership capacity as Board secretary. Costa Rican
entrepreneur and business leader, Alan Kelso, was named vice
president. The positions will be held for two-year terms.
EARTH alumni break Guinness World
Record in recycling
EARTH combats climate change on
Germany’s DW-TV
As polar ice caps melt, catastrophic hurricanes batter shorelines,
and droughts destroy food crops, globe-trotting Deutsche Welle
TV (DW-TV) reporters are visiting the imaginative people, ideas
and projects dedicated to climate protection and adaptation. DWTV’s GLOBAL IDEAS is published in five languages and produced
by an international team of authors, researchers and both TV and
online reporters.
For a feature that aired in late November, reporter Marion
Huetter visited EARTH University. The segment features EARTH
professor Bert Kohlmann and highlights EARTH’s work in solid
waste management, carbon neutrality, renewable energy, soil
conservation, sustainable banana farming and animal traction.
Watch the feature on DW-TV’s GLOBAL IDEAS website: www.
ideasforacoolerworld.org.
The International Environmental Summit for Kids (CIMA Kids)
broke the Guinness World Record by collecting a staggering
1,559,002 plastic bottles in one month. Eight EARTH graduates,
including Gustavo Manrique and José Javier Guarderas (’96,
Ecuador), president and general manager, respectively, of Total
Environmental Solutions (SAMBITO), helped organize CIMA Kids.
The event took place October 24-28 at El Parque La Carolina in
Quito, Ecuador, engaging more than 100,000 young Ecuadorians.
There, visitors enjoyed meeting characters from the Nickelodeon
channel, lectures, and several different hands-on activities to learn
more about the environment. EARTH is proud of these alumni
who, through their actions, demonstrate the purpose of the
University: to lead change for a better planet.
IMPACT
“Living a reason
for being”: Gino
Pinargote brings EARTH
values to Ecuador’s
agricultural sector
Gino Pinargote (‘95, Ecuador) wants to give people a reason to get
up in the morning. It’s the secret to his success as an entrepreneur:
he strives to inspire agricultural professionals to feel “love” for
their work and “pride in their excellent performance, wise
decisions and ethical actions.”
His path hasn’t been easy. When Gino remembers his University
days, he speaks with brio of “an environment of peace, love, and
a lot of dynamism.” Nevertheless, while at EARTH, he faced an
immense challenge. For his entrepreneurial project, Gino ran a
banana plantlet nursery with several classmates. Despite the
project’s initial promise, a flood in 1993 destroyed most farms’
crops in the Limón province that year, which resulted in the
project’s closing with negative balances.
The experience of managing a real-life disaster would prove
invaluable. As a quality control specialist with one of his country’s
biggest mango-exporting companies, Durexporta, he had the
“gratifying” chance as a graduate to reinvent the company’s image
in El Niño’s devastating wake, earning him greater responsibility
overseeing quality on all of the company’s mango, banana, palmetto,
cocoa and cattle farms.
Gino moved on from Durexporta to pursue other projects, and in
2001, Dole recognized his leadership with the prize for Ecuador’s
best banana producer. “It was like the Oscars!” he laughs, recalling
the excitement he felt.The prestigious award highlights productivity,
quality, social and environmental responsibility.
In 2005, he created his own business, Equilibratum, which today
provides environmental consulting and management services,
applied biotechnology to prevent and treat environmental
contamination and landscaping services. The company now
employs nearly 20 people.
For Gino, EARTH is “where you live a reason for being: contributing
to society’s development and resource management with the
future in mind – and that’s called sustainability.”
NEWS BRIEFS
One Night One EARTH
On February 13, please join us in Washington, D.C. for “One
Night One EARTH,” a cocktail gala in support of EARTH.With the
Organization of American States (OAS) as its venue, the evening
will feature entertainment, refreshment and light dinner fare. The
U.S. Agency for International Development will provide the event’s
keynote speaker. EARTH is also grateful for the participation of
Her Excellency Muni Figueres, Ambassador of Costa Rica, and His
Excellency Edgar Ugalde, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica
to the OAS, co-chairs of the event. The event will begin at 6:00
P.M., and tickets and more information are available online at www.
earth.ac.cr/onenightoneearth.
SHARING
EXPERIENCES
Marlene Fluharty,
The Americana Foundation’s
Executive Director, on “hope
for a changed world”
Part of an ongoing series with donors on why they give
Why EARTH?
After spending two years off and on hearing [the late] Dr. Norman
Brown, a founder of EARTH University and a member of the Americana
Foundation Board, tell me of the exceptional university in Costa Rica,
I was given the opportunity to visit. It only took one three-day visit,
fully scheduled meetings with students, faculty and administrators for
me to realize that here was a place that would indeed launch men
and women who could change the world. I left Costa Rica completely
committed to spreading the story of this unusual university.
What attracted you most?
The students who exhibited the basic mission of EARTH: commitment to
sustainable agriculture and systems, protection and stewardship of the
environment, assurance that their lives will promote equity and social
justice, and that their countries and communities can benefit from their
entrepreneurship.They are the hope for a changed world.
What is the global impact?
Each and every student I have spoken with over the past 12 years has
told me that a powerful lesson they learned at EARTH is that our globe
consists of multiple nations and communities, each with their own values
and cultures, and that if we and our environment are to survive and
prosper, we must learn how to work together. It is not an easy task but
these students are a positive start toward that end. They and EARTH
University’s staff and supporters make it seem more possible than ever.
EARTH University Foundation;
Eight Piedmont Center, Suite 520
3525 Piedmont Road, NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
PHONE:(404) 995-1348 / FAX:(404) 995-1240
E-MAIL: [email protected]
www.earth-usa.org
EARTH University
P.O. Box 442-1000, San José, Costa Rica
PHONE: (+506) 2713-0000 / FAX: (+506) 2713-0001
www.earth.ac.cr
NONPROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
ATLANTA. GA
PERMIT NO.7468
EVENTS
December 2012-May 2013
December 17-January 7: EARTH campuses with a reduced
holiday staff
December 24-January 7: EARTH campuses closed
January 14: Orientation week begins for first-year students
January 21: Start of 2013 class year
March 14-16: Meetings of the Board of Directors, Board of
Trustees and the EARTH University Foundation Board of Trustees
March 13: EARTH Games
March 17-20: Amigos Trip to the EARTH campus
March 28-29: EARTH campuses closed for national holiday
April 11: EARTH campuses closed for national holiday
March 26: EARTH Anniversary and Day without Cars
Our future depends on you.
Make a gift. See it grow.
For more news and stories visit: www.earth.ac.cr and follow us
on Facebook.com/EARTHUniversity.
Your tax-deductible contribution through EARTH University
Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, will help provide
opportunities to young leaders who want to make a difference
in the world but lack the resources to pursue a higher education.
Gifts to EARTH University Foundation can be made:
• Online at www.earth.ac.cr.
• By phone: 404-995-1235 (Mon-Fri, 8:30 am-5:00 pm ET)
• By mail: EARTH University Foundation;
Eight Piedmont Center Suite 520
3525 Piedmont Road, NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
Office: 404-995-1348 / Fax: 404-995-1240
May 1: EARTH campuses closed for national holiday
May 5-12: Student break
May 13: Start of the second trimester
May 26-29: Amigos Trip to the EARTH campus
Credits:
EARTH University Office of Communications
EARTH Connections
Edition 4, December 2012
Copyright © 2012 EARTH University, All rights reserved.