We met Stefani when we first arrived at the international airport of San Jose. She was holding an EARTH sign waiting for us on the side of the exit with Pablo. She immediately figured out who we are when we walked towards her. She is a Costa Rican, born and raised here, but her English is very good. Hence, accordingly and naturally, other than our coordinator, Stefani became our tour guide, translator, and dearest friend in our two-week trip.
Hey Stefani, our dearest friend! We appreciate what you did for us, and we will miss you a lot!
Stefani is a student at the National University of Costa Rica majoring in international relations. She started to work for international offices at the University of Costa Rica and soon found her passion in international mobility and wanted to dedicate her future career into international mobility. So she looked for the internship that close to her house. She found EARTH University, which is 30-minutes drive from home. Without even knowing about EARTH, she scanned through EARTH/RAI (Academic Relations Office) and clearly realized that this was what she interested in. So she emailed Nico to ask if she could be an intern for them. Surprisingly to her, Nico said yes. Stefani began to work for RAI in her summer vacation. RAI is an department of EARTH University created to bring EARTH University to more international students and institutions. As an independent office, they have to mostly finance themselves because EARTH only supports them with a small amount of money.
Stefani interned for RAI for a month from June. The only challenge she faced was that she knew nothing about EARTH. Actually, she had never even heard of EARTH before she found this internship. But she is very grateful for the opportunity, and she loves what she is doing. She likes to observe, and she learns fast. Hence, after two weeks being an assistant in the office, she already learned how to deal with the group and all the logistics. Also, thanks to the RAI and Nico, they are very open and trust their interns. Thus, Stefani obtains a lot of chances to learn and a lot of freedom to develop her ideas.
Since Stefani started to know and work for EARTH University, she became more concerned about the planet, climate change, what she eats and what her families eat. She valued EARTH’s mission to promote sustainable development through the creation of young professionals with strong values, solid technical and scientific skills, entrepreneurial spirit, and social and environmental consciousness. By realizing that how many students that applied to EARTH but never get a chance to come to study, she proposed her scholarship project to Nico.
“I felt empowered since I started to work at EARTH; I want to do something for these students, I hope to help them to change the world!” She said it with the sparkle in her eyes. I can feel her great passion and commitment. She wants to develop a program that can help those students to come to EARTH for a short term but still get the core of EARTH education. She is trying to create a great opportunity for students who would dedicate their life to sustainability because students need to present their plan to get the scholarship and operate it after they finish the 8-week program at EARTH. The short-term programs now provided by EARTH are intensive Spanish, sustainability classes or internship; the program Stefani has designed is more than work and study abroad or language studies. Instead, she aims to encourage students to develop a practical plan and then actually operate it, which is similar to the entrepreneurship program at EARTH. So the scholarship will be offered to applicants who come up with an enforceable plan related to sustainable agronomy. During the time they are at the EARTH University, she will coordinate the 8 weeks’ classes for them to help them make their plans happen. Moreover, after that she will have her team will follow up with the students to make sure their plans are actually carried out.
It is amazing to see that how EARTH has changed Stefani. For her, she appreciates the opportunity to work for EARTH and RAI, and she wants to help people through her work at EARTH. Her words “I would love to work for EARTH for my whole life” probably more.
Like EARTH’s president said: “We believe that if we offer them the right education, instill values and ethics in a pluralistic environment, provide entrepreneurial training with a strong social and environmental focus, and return them to their countries and communities as agents of change, we can make a difference in the world”. Even though Stefani is not an EARTH student, she demonstrates to us all how you can make a difference.
Lei
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