Earth University

Today was the second to last day of our Latin American adventure,  we woke up bright and early at 530 am to make it on the road by 6 am for a 3 hour journey to one of the most unconventional four-year colleges in the world. Earth University, established in 1990, is an agricultural university in which students from around the world learn to manage and grow food with sustainable methods to improve current agricultural techniques and prepare themselves for their future agronomist positions. The goal is to teach students how to get better results from their crops while having to put minimal investment into the operations. The school was established with 60 students; today the university has over 400 students, 60% male and 40% female. The student body represents over 20 different countries from the Americas to Asia and everywhere in-between. School days at Earth University start at 6 am and go until about 4 or 5 pm. The University is a private nonprofit school which receives government grants and donations from companies around the world such as Coca-Cola and Dole. 80 % of students who attend the school have either a full scholarship or receive some type of financial aid. For the 20 % who do not receive any aid the University Costs $ 37,000 per year. The University looks for the best of the best. Recruiters from the school travel around the world and have about 2000 interviews with new potential students. Of the 2000, only 100 are picked to be in next year’s freshman class replacing the 100 students that graduate each year with bachelor’s degrees. The school does not offer masters or PHD programs but strongly encourages students to continue their studies. Professors keep tabs and ask for feedback as they keep in touch with their graduated students to make sure they are all headed in the right direction and ready to make a positive change in the world.

            The university’s curriculum is based on ecology but also has an entrepreneurial aspect to it as well. It starts off in the first year as students are introduced to not only the agricultural tools and machinery but to human core values as well. Students are in the farms 2 of the 7 days and in class the rest of them to gain a more hands-on experience. The second and third year the students are assigned an environmental project which focuses on devising sustainable crops at low costs often working symbiotically with local farmers. The schools grants the group of students $3,000 which is expected to be paid back at 23% interest after the project is done. If the project fails due to a change in climate, a disease, or a failing market for the product. Most products do succeed but there is a small chance that projects come out unsuccessful. After the third year, fourth-year students are required to have a 2-month internship and to be fluent in English and Spanish.

The school consists of over 8300 acres of land with 10 acres of buildings and the rest as farm land. The School remains self-sufficient as they sell many of the crops that that the students learn to grow. Bananas are the number one product that the university sells, producing about 1 million dollars in profit each year for the school. 90% of bananas from Earth University are sold to the super market Whole Foods, while the rest goes to Europe. The students are taught to grow foods without harmful chemicals and growth hormones. The focus of the school is to produce Sustainable and organic food rather than commercial/conventional food like the industrial farms in the US.