Women in STEM Can Make a Difference

On Thursday, we had a field trip about 45 minutes from here over the mountain. We visited another women-owned business “Lluvias de Gloria Coffee Farm.” Gloria explained how she came from a large family and she received some land from her father. It had been grazed on by cows and had no vegetation. She started planting a variety of plants and trees. And like the previous coffee plantation we visited, she has a variety of trees and plants intermingled with the coffee plants. She joined a womens’ initiative  group and applied for a loan and after 2 years of trying, she got a loan to help purchase some coffee roasting equipment. Her business has grown substantially over the years. She also prides herself in having a seed repository that came in handy during Covid as locals asked for seeds to grow food in their own gardens.

Thursday and Friday, a few more of us got to milk cows, spray down chickens, hold chickens and chicks. Although we did poorly, the farmhand squirted like a pro. He squirted milk into two mugs and one of the girls had chocolate powder and we all tried fresh chocolate milk.

In the afternoon, we had 3 professional female speakers that talked about their path through different areas of STEM. They were a biological engineer, environmental engineer and a Costa Rican biologist. The students had the opportunity to ask questions and learned a lot.

The students also had their last of 6 Spanish classes. The teachers made learning fun. They were amazing. They played lots of games that encouraged learning.

Today, we learned more about composting and the biodigester by exploring the property. We visited the garden and cows. We also each planted a tree to offset our carbon footprint from the resources we used to get here like flying on a plane. Now, the students are evaluating the rice traps they buried earlier in the week. They love the lab!