Since 2017, the Smith Center has been partnering with Zamorano University, a private university in Honduras that offers various degree programs in sustainable agriculture. The Center has hosted fifteen students in the last five years. Some examples include:
- Juan Carlos Ramos Tanchez, a student of environment and development engineering from Guatemala, helped develop a new Herbert College of Agriculture study abroad course in sustainable agriculture to Guatemala during his internship. Following his time as an intern at UTIA, Ramos Tanchez completed a master’s degree at the University of Nebraska and is now working at Cornell University.
- Jean Pierre Enriquez Murcia, a student from Ecuador, was able to intern with former faculty member Curtis Luckett, while completing his bachelor’s degree in food science. While pursuing his master’s at Zamorano, Enriquez Murcia had the opportunity to return to UT to work with the Smith Center on research related to food security, contributing to projects both in Cambodia and on the UT Knoxville campus. He is now pursuing a PhD at Louisiana State University.
- Catheryne Jerez Sarceño interned with the Smith Center in 2022 under the mentorship of Dave Ader. During this three-month period at UTIA, she analyzed data and wrote a paper on food and nutrition security in Honduras using gender sensitive approaches. In collaboration with UTIA faculty, she published a joint article in two Latin American journals.
- Emma Navarro is completing a master’s degree in Sustainable Tropical Agriculture at the Zamorano Agricultural School in Honduras. She is currently an intern at the Smith Center where she works on data analysis related to food security and value chains of crops of commercial interest, specifically coffee and peanuts. In addition, she is writing the publication of the results of her research in which she used the participatory photovoice methodology to identify how Honduran women coffee growers who belong to the association of the export company Café Orgánico Marcala, S.A (COMSA) contribute to sustainable agriculture.