Karen’s family lives in San Pedro Sacatepéquez, Guatemala. To pursue her interest in agriculture, she attended secondary school at the National Central School of Agriculture, or ENCA (Escuela Nacional Central de Agricultura in Spanish).
Karen has seen people in her community abandon their farms and land as they become discouraged by unsuccessful harvests. After graduation, she wants to go back to San Pedro Sacatepéquez to show farmers better ways to harvest so they can keep their livelihoods and not have to sell their land to larger companies that are taking over the agroindustry. Karen also hopes “to establish a waste management system in my community. When I arrived at EARTH I realized it’s a lot better to live this way, with everything sorted and separated into its proper place. There is much less environmental pollution.”
