Programs
Make a Difference
What are you passionate about?
Champion the programs that matter the most to you and invest in people and communities with purposeful philanthropy through EARTH University. Read more about our signature programs and learn how you can contribute to a legacy of shaping our collective future.
Community Development Program
Empower tomorrow’s social change makers today.
Our purpose at EARTH is to prepare leaders who will have a positive social impact on their home countries and regions. The question we pose is not if they will return to their region and give back, but when and how.
The Community Development Program (CDP) prepares students to return to their home countries to promote social justice and shared prosperity by reinforcing skills they’ll need such as empathy and respect, creative problem solving, and effective communication.
EARTH Futures
You can help our students develop next-generation solutions for our global food systems.
EARTH Futures is the global center for solutions at EARTH University, that aims to transform rural areas. We structure our efforts around two main pillars: Education for Leadership and Developing Solutions – focusing on Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Together with like-minded partners and affiliated academic institutions, we strive to make agricultural education effective and transformative, inspiring the next generation of leaders for rural areas and for our global food systems.
In addition, we work alongside local communities and producers to design, implement, test, and scale new solutions that can improve livelihoods and sustainability in rural areas.
EARTH Entrepreneurship
Help job seekers become job creators through entrepreneurial development.
All students develop and operate a business venture during their first two and a half years of study, thanks in part to the Jorge Manuel Dengo O Entrepreneurial Projects Program. No other undergraduate college requires all its students to start, run, and close a multi-year business venture from beginning to end.
The program aims to inspire and cultivate students’ entrepreneurial drive to create economically profitable, ecologically viable, and socially just food production enterprises, while honing their leadership skills.
More than 30 years later, four out of five EARTH alumni are living and working in their home countries, and more than 23% run their own business by their 10th class reunion, double the U.S. national average of business ownership among college graduates.
Infrastructure and Tech
Invest in EARTH’s capital improvement plans.
Capital improvements to our existing technologies, library resources, and infrastructure will allow faculty, staff, and students the most up-to-date digital and physical experiences and unhindered access to excellent academic instruction.
Internships
Support EARTH students as they intern at companies across the globe.
For more than 30 years, EARTH has successfully used a transformative leadership education model focused on experiential learning, preparing students to solve the sustainability challenges of today and tomorrow.
Third-year EARTH students apply their real-world experience to a 15-week internship at one of EARTH’s network of host organizations located in more than 30 countries around the globe. Students focus their internship on their field of interest including agriculture, livestock management, forestry, research, or food production.
Precision Agriculture
Contribute to the future of sustainable farming
Precision agriculture or precision farming is the practice of using information technology — such as GPS guidance and soil sampling, robotics, drones, sensors, automated hardware and software — to observe, measure, and respond in ways that improve agricultural production and sustainability in both crops and livestock.
EARTH University’s Precision Agriculture Center is instrumental in improving the productivity in small and medium-sized farms surrounding EARTH’s campus in Guanacaste, in addition to helping producers to know their land and crops better and connect with new markets.
Renewable Energies (CIDER)
Lead the way to the future of renewable energies.
Located on EARTH’s Guácimo campus, the Center for Research and Development in Renewable Energies (known by its Spanish acronym CIDER) is a training facility for students, farmers, community leaders, bankers, lawmakers and renewable energies professionals from around the world.
CIDER is equipped with resources to educate across a broad spectrum of renewable energy concepts including biomass, biogas, biofuel, solar thermal energy, photovoltaic, wind and waterpower, geothermal energy, storage technologies and hydrogen technologies. The objective of the center is to help growers in developing countries learn how to set up and use low-cost, high-quality equipment.
Research
Support EARTH’s research mission and make a positive impact on the life of rural and urban communities.
EARTH’s research mission is to conduct high-quality research, collaborate with international universities and research institutes, and make a positive impact on the life of rural and urban communities. Our research focus on sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, agroforestry, rural development and sustainability, and technological innovations serves our vision to become a leading innovative university that uses applied research to address productive, environmental, and social challenges related to food systems.
Spanish Immersion
You can help non-native Spanish speaking EARTH students with the foundation for success.
Non-native Spanish speakers receive robust and relevant Spanish instruction in a five-month immersion program that takes them from zero to intermediate level Spanish and provides critical introduction to Costa Rican culture and university life.
Students live individually with host families, traveling to and from campus with their host family members for an intensive day of learning. By January, they are ready to move on campus when their Spanish-speaking classmates arrive.