How far can English take you?
How far can you go? With the right words, to the other side of the planet, to make it a better place in its wide circumference.
In today’s world, English has become a global lingua franca with an ever-growing number of speakers. And in this Tower of Babel in which we live, English fluency can often determine our career success – or at least define its direction. For that reason, all EARTH students receive four years of intensive English instruction, which enables them to handle with agility the words that are building the twenty-first century.
In this way, Carlos Briceño (‘09, Costa Rica) has become a leader not only for Spanish-speakers who embrace his initiatives, but also for all who, directly or indirectly, are verbal descendants of Shakespeare’s language.
Beyond Spanish
After graduating, Carlos did a year-long post-graduation internship in the United States. There, he worked in ranching, his passion, of which he can now speak with ease in perfect English.
In 2011, he returned to Nandayure, his hometown in northern Costa Rica. Despite his in-depth knowledge and new ideas, he struggled to enter the job market. “In the area where I live, it’s complicated to find jobs in agricultural systems, due to the little importance that farmers give new technological tools,” he explains. “They prefer to keep doing things the way they do them.”
For a time, Carlos worked in the town’s engineering and green spaces department. Then, in March of 2012, the opportunity to work with livestock finally opened its doors to him with a “nice to meet you.” This time, if at any moment Carlos had wondered how far English could take him, he had the answer in front of him, on his plane ticket: his language fluency would take him to the other side of the world.
Carlos Briceño, with the governor of Adamawa
Nigeria: center stage
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country. With more than 160 million people to feed, it’s also one of the world’s fastest-growing nations. These two facts make Nigeria one of the current global stages that present any agronomist with important challenges in both agricultural and livestock sciences.
Currently, Carlos is a leader of change right in the whirl of activity taking place: he works in Adamawa, in northeastern Nigeria, one of the country’s largest states. There, he works with one of the country’s largest mechanized farms, Sabore Farms. His mission: to create an integrated livestock farm as an initial project to start an international agricultural university based on EARTH’s educational model. In this way, just three years after graduating from the University, Carlos is already a consultant for such an important project, which promises to bring the type of education required to prepare Africa’s next generation of agricultural leaders. .
He helps improve the farm and implement techniques to boost production. Specifically, Carlos is leading the farm in generating electricity from the methane (emitted by animal waste), making organic fertilizers and increasing milk production, among other projects. For these reasons, this young Costa Rican now counts among his most meaningful professional achievements “having managed to find a job as a consultant in my area of interest and personal knowledge, in a faraway country.”
A distant country, whose door began to open the moment Carlos found himself in an EARTH classroom, not only learning about agronomy and livestock systems, but also about how to answer the question “How far can you go?” in a way millions more can understand: “As far as I want.”
Toda una INSPIRACIÓN…. Con voluntad y esfuerzo todo se puede…. el límite se lo pone uno mismo…. SÍMBOLO de PERSEVERANCIA!!!
Carlos que orgulloso me siento de usted como profesor, pero sobre todo como amigo. Ya eres un ejemplo para muchos y eso crea una mayor responsabilidad para tí! Te felicito y As far as you want !
Que el señor te continue bendiciendo.
Mucha Suerte Carlos. Cada vez, un mundo globalizado nos presenta una oportunidad de transferir tecnologia y conocimientos a los sitios donde mas se necesita. Usted es un agente mas de esta necesidad. Al igual que la riqueza y los alimentos, el conocimiento que ayuda prosperar es maldistribuido. Muchos éxitos y espero que tenga una buena adaptación en Nigeria. Julius Mbuga, Graduado EARTH 2005.
Briceño, exelente en la vida no se deben de imponer obtaculos y todo se logra con emprendeduriosmo y es lo que has logrado en el lejano oriente, lo mejor de la vida es lo que cada uno pueda hacer en satisfaccion de lo que puedad lograr, suerte y que Dios te iliumine siempre.
Muy bueno. Suerte Carlos, para nosotros como profesores de colegio, no sabes cuanto nos alegra
Con la ayuda de DIOS todo es posible!!! ….Paciencia y Perseverancia son claves importantes para el Éxito… se que has tenido ambas y mucho mas… y es precisamente por eso que estas ahí mi hermano, que Orgullo y que Felicidad me dan tu Éxito y Superación!!! Mis Felicitaciones mi estimado Amigo y Hermano!!!!!! Que Dios te siga Bendiciendo….