Druid Hills Resident Takes Off for an Educational Adventure in Costa Rica

Her mom is Swiss, her dad is American, she grew up in Japan and now she’s off to Costa Rica.

Druid Hills resident Ingrid Blanton came to the neighborhood in 2005 when her husband began working as the curator for the St. Catherine’s Island collection at Fernbank. She has been serving as the Associate Vice President of Gift Planning at for almost 5 years.

Prior to working at Emory, Ingrid worked for the Williamsburg Foundation, though she studied international law for developing countries and held a deep passion for our environment. Her love for raising significant contributions and promoting a sustainable planet are finally coming together.

Last summer Ingrid got a call asking about her interest in serving as the Vice President of Development for EARTH University.

EARTH University is “an international institution created out of a deep conviction that the environmental and social challenges confronting the planet can be resolved through education that promotes science, technology and entrepreneurship while focusing on essential human values, leadership and a commitment to social and environmental service. EARTH offers an undergraduate program in agricultural sciences and the rational use of natural resources leading to the licenciatura degree. The campus is located in Guacimo, Limon Province, Costa Rica.”

Ingrid says “this is the perfect way for me to bring together my professional background and passion for the environment and personal dream for my husband and I to travel and live in Latin America.”

The Blanton’s leave next month for Costa Rica.

EARTH University just celebrated its 20th anniversary. The University came about from leaders in Costa Rica who saw challenges across Central America such as regional instability, poverty and environmental degradation and wanted to address them. The leaders came up with the idea for a university to focus on sustainable agriculture and entrepreneurship.

The idea was to carefully select young adults Latin America and the Caribbean to help the development of the countries in the region.  

Since its inception, EARTH has been committed to providing opportunities to young people who ordinarily would never be able to go to college, and it developed a financial model based on providing 50 percent of all students with a full scholarship, 30 percent with partial aid, and 20 percent pay the tuition, room and board fees.

Eighty percent of EARTH’s financing comes from charitable gifts. The school’s two founding gifts were from USAID and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

EARTH’s goal is to educate these students in sustainable agricultural techniques and to instill in them a sense of entrepreneurship so that they can then return to their countries and build businesses.

All students start and run their own business during their first three years at EARTH.  One example is a group of students who take pineapple, learn how to dry it, dip it in chocolate, market it and distribute it.

There is also a commercial aspect to EARTH – making yogurt, selling bananas, pineapple and cheeses – they recently expanded their partnership with Whole Foods to sell frozen banana and pineapple pieces. The revenue from these sales helps support the academic programs.

“The students work really hard,” Ingrid said. “In addition to classes they have days when they get up to work in the fields and farms. That is a great experience and leveling factor for students. It is so important to realize what it takes to do this work at every level.”  

EARTH University students are selected very much based on their values: their interest in protecting the environment, in giving back to their communities, their level of social consciousness and their natural leadership skills.

There are 110 new students every year in the very intensive four year, 11-months a year program. At the carbon-neutral campus, all courses are taught in Spanish. However, most students take English during all four years, with the objective that at the end of those four years, they will have the ability to communicate effectively in English.

EARTH tracks the students after graduation and has incredibly impressive results. Seventy-five percent report having a positive social impact, 62 percent report having a positive environmental impact, and among alumni with more than 10 years since graduation, an average of four jobs have been created per graduate.  

One inspiring success story comes from Francis Nimukunda in Uganda.

Francis came to EARTH and started learning about farming more effectively.

As a student, he began corresponding with his family in Uganda about new agricultural methods. The family took this advice and started seeing the production increase on their small family farm.

Francis returned to Uganda, made more and more profits as the farm progressed and earned enough money that he was able to start a school in his community.

The school educates 200-300 students and embedded into their curriculum is environmental protection values.

Love this amazing school as much as I do?

Come out to their event on Thursday, June 2 — a screening of Home, a film by award-winning environmentalist and aerial photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, which acknowledges our planet’s vulnerability to change and the story of human impact on our planet.

EARTH is also the beneficiary of a run at Serenbe in November.  

If you would like to help with fundraising efforts for the run, please contact Michelle Hamner at mhamber@earth-usa.org or 404-995-1348.