Meet the ECOSUR Masters Students
Grow Ahead is teaming up with ECOSUR to fund scholarships for 10 professionals to receive their Professional Master’s Degree in Agroecology (MAE.)
We invite you to meet each of these individuals, explore their proposals, and join this collective effort to sow committed science and harvest more just and resilient futures. Donate to the scholarships here and learn more here.
Elyde Marcelino Angeles
I belong to an indigenous community in the Montaña Alta region of the state of Guerrero, Mexico. Our native language is Meꞌphaa (Tlapaneco). I am an agroecology graduate from the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the Autonomous University of Guerrero. I also collaborate with the UNICAM SUR, offering agroecological training at their Center for Education, Experimentation, Production, and Demonstration of Sustainable Inputs and Technologies (CEPRODITES), and collaborate in facilitation of workshops on organic fertilizer production, backyard gardens, soil management and care, and bio-input production.
My work supports farmers undertaking agroecological transitions in Guerrero’s Costa Grande region, and encompasses the maize growing system from farming techniques to organizational strategies.
Francisca Aracely Mauro Osorio
My name is Fran and I am from a region of Oaxaca where the Chinantec and Mazatec indigenous cultures converge. Both inspire me because of the rich biocultural heritage preserved in their languages, worldviews, and daily practices of communality. I accompany collective processes in agroecology as part of a technical team that works with farming families and institutional allies in rural basic education. In our activities, we facilitate workshops on beekeeping, backyard livestock farming, family gardens, traditional medicine, and the cultivation of corn, sugarcane, and cacao, as well as the processing of crops.
In 2025 we developed a community project to support school gardens in Arroyo Chiquito, Tuxtepec. Students, teachers, parents, and the secondary school committee are participating in this project with the aim of linking academic content with gardening practices, while strengthening community spirit through the recognition of local knowledge, exchange, and co-learning. My research project will strengthen community-school collaboration in order to promote sustainable practices based on dialogue between local and scientific knowledge. We propose to co-design innovative strategies for the school garden, integrating agroecology in all possible dimensions.
The funds from this campaign will be used for tools and seeds to produce a school garden manual that systematizes the experience and serves as a guide for future community education initiatives, and to hold a food festival celebrating the schools' achievements.
Your support is key to transforming food, farming, and education in my community!
Jair Mendoza Villanueva
I’m Jair from Jalisco, Mexico. My grandparents migrated from the countryside but maintained their rural customs. I spent most of my childhood living with my maternal grandmother who taught me how to grow vegetables at home. Her stories and teachings inspired me to dream of a life in harmony with nature, working the land. Over the course of two years, I traveled through southern Mexico and Guatemala where I encountered different cultures and met mostly rural people. During this journey, I worked and learned about agriculture. Upon my return, I collaborated with collectives and organizations that produce food agroecologically while caring for life and the land.
I currently work with the Suumil Móokt'aan collective which promotes the territorialization of agroecology in Sinanché, Yucatán. Our goal is to document how the traditional Mayan knowledge of the peninsula, in dialogue with contemporary agroecological practices, contributes to regenerating the agricultural landscape damaged by the sisal haciendas that operated in this area. We also work to generate alternatives for dignified living and working in this region in order to reduce youth migration and heal the historical wound of the displacement of Mayan culture.
Funds from this campaign will be used for transportation in the Yucatan Peninsula, equipment for data collection and analysis (recording devices, software, etc.), supplies and food for social cartography workshop participants, and for a series of infographics to help raise awareness of agroecological practices for taking care of and inhabiting the territory.
María Cristina Meléndez Mendoza
My name is Cris, and I grew up in the beautiful municipality of Matanza, Santander, Colombia surrounded by mountains and rivers. I am a farmer that believes it is in our hands to produce and care for Mother Earth using agroecological practices. Most of what we grow is for my family's own consumption with a small amount for sale. This experience motivates me to facilitate agroecology workshops in the communities in my territory and thus contribute to strengthening food sovereignty and autonomy.
I am part of Corambiente, an organization that supports peasant women's goups to promote agroecological transitions. We also collaborate with young people to monitor biodiversity in the mountains of the Santurbán Páramo. Our work is to promote the Campesina a Campesino (Peasant to Peasant) methodology with practices of conservation, use, and care for the environment. The main problem is large-scale mining which pollutes the water and destroys biodiversity. That is why we have organized with other communities and associations to protect our territory. Together with Corambiente, I proposed a research project that contributes strategies to strengthen the community fabric and promote the care of our land.
The funds raised by this campaign will purchase food, materials, and equipment needed for agroecology workshops and knowledge exchange among women and young people, transportation to different farms in the area, and outreach work that will help strengthen the community. Your support is key to transforming our reality!
To this end, I am studying the Campesina a Campesino methodology and my research project is linked to my personal commitment to contribute to the fabric of this collective dream. I seek to analyze the steps taken with this methodology in the MST of Ceará, to reflect on challenges and lessons learned, make recommendations, and choose and develop tools that can improve our processes. I am convinced that agroecology and the Campesina a Campesino methodology is the best way to advance our struggle for, and in defense of, land and life.
Support from this campaign will help my project acquire equipment for documentation, methodological and agroecological workshops, and the development of a “methodological toolkit” with materials to contribute to Campesina a Campesino methodology. Please join me in weaving this future from my research, movement, and community.
Bartola Ernestina Nohemy Juc Suc
I’m Nohemy, a Maya Q’eqchi’-Poq’omchi’ woman originally from northern Guatemala. Eleven years ago, I migrated to the western part of the country, to the municipality of Santa Lucía, Utatlán, Sololá, in Maya K’iche’ territory, to study agroforestry. This place, surrounded by the Sampual, Batzíbal, Saq'lak, and Imuch mountains, and the headwaters of the rivers that run through it, has welcomed me with open arms. Connecting with this territory has strengthened my identity as an Indigenous woman which had been denied to me in my childhood.
Since 2021, I have been collaborating with the Guadalupana Agricultural and Artisanal Association for Development, where I have accompanied community forestry and traditional production systems. Here, practices that reflect the roots of indigenous-peasant culture and way of life in coexistence with the environment are still preserved.
My proposal is to document the traditional knowledge and practices related to soil and land management in traditional production systems, as part of the biocultural legacy. My goal is to ensure that the wisdom of our grandmothers and grandfathers continues to guide our practices and that their knowledge is passed on to the next generation to promote farming based on cultural and climate resilient agroecological principles.
With your contribution, I will purchase materials to facilitate spaces for farmers to meet and exchange experiences, and develop educational materials about soil management for children and young people, promoting the exchange and multiplication of cultural knowledge. Your support is key to creating the fertile soil in which this reality can flourish!
Reyna Gómez Ruiz
Hello, my name is Reyna Gómez Ruiz from San Nicolas Buenavista, Zinacantán; a place where hard-working men and women rise early to cultivate the land and produce sacred foods. In the distance, you can see the women carrying out their daily activities in the fields, at home, and in their gardens, speaking Tsotsil, and creating the flower-embroidered clothing that is emblematic of Zincanteca culture. The countryside is green with vegetable crops, but our learning community has observed that agrochemicals and pesticides have diminished the soil’s fertility. In addition, there has been an increase in pests and contamination of water sources, soil, and air, which puts the health of both producers and consumers at risk.
In response, my research focuses on agroecological transition through experimental vegetable gardens, linked to spiritual understanding of land care. It involves experimenting with bio-inputs in backyard vegetable gardens. Through this participatory methodology of experimenting and practicing in small spaces, our learning community has found that favorable results can be put into practice in larger plots. Sharing these experiences with more families is crucial for the agroecological transition in the territory. With this research, we seek to continue growing healthy food without damaging the soil, water, the broader environment, or people's health. By linking farming with spiritual practices, we hope to cultivate an ethic of care for life.
The funds raised by this collective campaign will support our agroecological transitions through purchase of materials for experimental gardens, organizing workshops, and conducting visits to learn about other agroecological spaces.
Silke Javiera Pérez Altamirano
My name is Silke, and I am originally from Managua, Nicaragua. By training, I am a social anthropologist, by passion, an illustrator, and by conviction, an agroecologist. Since I was 17, I have been a member of the Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (ATC), a peasant organization with 47 years of experience, committed to the revolutionary struggle to improve life in the countryside and the territorialization of agroecology in our country.
My research project seeks to promote a Campesine a Campesine (CaC) process in the community of El Diamante 2, located in the department of Matagalpa, in northern Nicaragua. As a first step, we will conduct an inventory of existing agroecological practices, with the aim of documenting, highlighting, and critically evaluating them in relation to the hegemonic frameworks of knowledge that tend to delegitimize them. My methodology integrates various approaches: ethnography, ethnomethodology, and, as a central axis, the CaC approach. The latter stands out for its ability to identify, value, and share local knowledge of the territory, and is proposed as an alternative to the costly models of technology and knowledge transfer typical of conventional agriculture.
Support for this campaign will support the purchase of equipment for collecting and recording information, as well as the development of key activities such as assemblies, focus groups, interviews, and an exchange with another agroecological community on the outskirts of Managua. In addition, it will enable the production of a 15-minute mini-documentary on agroecological practices in the community.
Join me in weaving this future through research, movement, and community!
Camila Plá Osorio
My name is Camila and I accompany social processes through words, planting, and listening. Although I was born in Mexico City, surrounded by asphalt and gray buildings, I have sought to connect with planting and knowledge of the countryside for as long as I can remember; mainly working alongside peasant communities in Oaxaca and Morelos that seek food sovereignty. In recent years, I have worked in San Miguel Chimalapa, Oaxaca, a municipality and agricultural center recognized as one of the most biodiverse areas in the country. This territory has been protected by the Angpøn (Zoque) people who have inhabited it since time immemorial. I work mainly with the Matza Collective, which is made up of young researchers and activists from the village with whom I have a bond built on the common interest of protecting the forest. The collective's activities are aimed at defending the territory from the threat of open-pit mining megaprojects, as well as preserving communal assets.
With this research, we seek to recognize the Chimalapa farming practices that have been rejected by conventional agriculture. By working alongside farming families in their daily tasks and through dialogue with them, we will delve into practices that are the result of centuries of interaction between the people and the forest. We will use the funds to produce video letters to share agricultural practices between families from two remote localities. We will use the funds for recording, transportation, editing, and presentation in each of the communities. They will also be used to facilitate an exchange of experiences and seeds between families in the agricultural community of San Miguel Chimalapa.
Ali García Espinosa
My name is Ali and I’m from Soyatitan, in the Municipality of Venustiano Carranza, Chiapas, where I grew up surrounded by trees and large plains, where water flows constantly. My passion is to be an agroecological producer and promoter. Seeing how plants and animals grow and develop has made me aware of the importance of caring for life. Eleven years ago, I joined the Institute for Cooperation for Development with Equality, a community-based organization where I have collaborated with collectives, cooperatives, and civil society organizations to promote agroecology.
Now, my research project aims to strengthen backyard gardens by identifying the factors that favor or hinder their permanence and reproduction. I am working with 73 indigenous peasant families who speak their native language, Tseltal. Our goal is to ensure that backyard gardens do not disappear and that we ensure an adequate environment for families to continue living alongside their gardens.
With your contribution to this campaign, I will be able to travel to conduct the research, obtain materials for the workshops, purchase a digital camera to document the process, and design a product for socialization. With your support, we will make this a reality.
Ana Karoline Rodrigues Dias
I’m Karol, and I’m from the state of Ceará in northeast region Brazil, where I live in the Palmares Settlement, a peasant territory reclaimed through the struggle of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). Since I was a child, living in spaces organized by this Movement, I have participated in organizational, training, educational, and productive activities at the local, national, and international levels. I studied agroecology at a school coordinated by La Vía Campesina, and represented the MST in a “Women and Agroecology” summit in Guatemala. This path has led me to join the MST in Ceará, where we share the goal of advancing the territorialization of agroecology.
To this end, I am studying the Peasant to Peasant (Campesino a Campesino) Methodology and, my research project is linked to my personal commitment to contribute to the fabric of this collective dream. I seek to analyze the steps taken with this methodology in the MST of Ceará, to reflect on challenges and lessons learned, make recommendations, and choose and develop tools that can improve our processes. I am convinced that agroecology and the Campesina a Campesino methodology is the best way to advance our struggle for, and in defense of, land and life.
Support from this campaign will help my project acquire equipment for documentation, methodological and agroecological workshops, and the development of a “methodological toolkit” with materials to contribute to Campesina a Campesino methodology.
Please join me in weaving this future from my research, movement, and community.
Want to give the gift of trees even after the scholarships are fully funded?
Choose "Recurring" on the donation page to make a monthly or quarterly impact.
