Débora Daniela Flores Vásquez (Class of 2026, Guatemala) comes from the small town of Rio Dulce, on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala. She smiles whenever she talks about her home, and when she graduates at the end of 2026 she is eager to return there to incorporate what she’s learned at EARTH at her family’s property and in her community.
In addition to their family business, a hardware center, the family has a farm and preserves part of their land for conservation, planting trees and growing typical humid tropical crops of bananas, mangosteen, maracuja, coconut, and avocado. Growing up with so much abundance and beauty around her, Débora became interested in agroforestry and attended ENCA, the Central School of Agriculture, near Guatemala City. Wanting to expand her knowledge, when she heard about EARTH she jumped at the chance to add a degree in Agricultural Sciences to her skill set.
“It was one of my best ideas to study here. In a way, it felt familiar from the beginning. I come from a very similar climate, with similar crops. But the cultural diversity was new to me. I love knowing a variety of people, especially making friends from Africa. At first, when I arrived, I was more reserved. I didn’t have a cultural background of speaking up, of being social. EARTH has changed me.”
Débora completed her third-year Internship at Pueblo del Sol in Oaxaca, Mexico, a project started in 2017 to contribute to the development of a remote area in Oaxaca. The eco-lodge and retreat center is based on principles of organic agriculture, bio-construction, conservation, and sustainability. At this almost 2,000-acre community, deep in the mountains, Débora wore many hats to contribute to the organization’s efforts.
“It’s funny, when I started my Internship, I felt like I didn’t know a lot. But I realized how much knowledge I had gained when I began to apply what I had learned in my classes. It made me feel like more of a professional. I had a lot of responsibility as we were so remote. I oversaw a variety of projects—I conducted workshops for people in the community, I managed the vanilla crop, working on better fertilization practices and soil improvement. I made a calendar with a plan to guide the management of the crop. There were four of us there from EARTH, and we each had different projects. We were given a lot of trust.”
Although Débora’s main interest continues to be forestry, she has decided to branch out into the area of food processing for her Graduation Project, the final thesis that every EARTH student is required to complete. Her plan is to collaborate with another student to produce a yogurt-like dairy product made from coconut and cow milk, adding the helpful bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri, a versatile probiotic strain known for enhancing gut, immune, and oral health. They also want to add honey and fiber. Débora is interested to see if and how this combination can turn into a healthy and commercially viable product. “Commercially there is a supplement as a pill for Lactobacillus reuteri. But there is little information about adding it to yogurt-type products. We hope to add coconut fiber, pineapple fiber, and commercial fiber to make a healthy product.”
Débora looks forward to graduation day, and her return to her family in Rio Dulce. “I’m still open to exploring what I am most interested in. I am really starting to enjoy the agro- industrial side of things. I want to go home and work on the farm we have and improve what we are doing there. EARTH is not like the places I studied before. The professors have made it such a good experience here for me. Here, they treat us like colleagues. The four years really changes us – living here, in this community.”