agroecology certificate & training abroad!

Global Agroecology Pathways Program (GAPP) 

– 2024-2025 pilot program featuring experiential training in Kenya

MESA is thrilled to announce this pilot program, beginning on September 4th, 2024! GAPP offers a 10-week certificate course offering facilitator-led, interactive online sessions based on agroecology topics where students learn about global sustainable food systems and social movements. Students will also gain fundraising skills to help prepare for the one-month global fellowship in July, 2025 to live and train with MESA’s global partner NGO based in Thika, Kenya.

GAPP: Kenya Fellowship includes:

Global Agroecology Certificate Course: In this interdisciplinary series, co-taught by a Public Health Professor Frida Endinjok and Food Systems Educator/Chef Denà Brummer, we explore agriculture as a system of ecological and social processes, with ecological and social consequences. Student learning goals include:

• Developing a vision of agriculture as a social and ecological activity for which we all have many diverse demands and an important role to play.
• Gaining a general understanding of both the natural and social sciences of agriculture, including their basic methods of inquiry.
• Designing and presenting an agroecological plan around food systems and agricultural issues.
• Engaging with the organizations, stakeholders, and personal networks that bring a diversity of solutions to more sustainable and equitable food systems.
  

Fall 2024 Course Overview: Orientation + 10 facilitator-led, weekly interactive online sessions based on agroecology topics where students learn about global sustainable food systems and social movements. A quarter of the curriculum will focus on guiding students to apply for a grant/fellowship to sponsor their participation in a one-month global fellowship opportunity with MESA’s global partner NGO, Grow Biointensive Agriculture Center of Kenya (G-BiACK), based in Thika, Kenya in July 2025.

For a more comprehensive course overview, click here.

Fall 2024 Course-only cost: $425.

*Winter/Spring 2025 Course Overview – Dates & Full Description TBD. Sign up below to join the contact list for our next Intro to Agroecology course which will also qualify you for the Kenya 2025 Fellowship!

GAPP Fellowship Overview – Hands on living, training and exchange in Thika, Kenya: 

• Fellows with spend the month of July, 2025 living and training at G-BiACK, learning and practicing biointensive agroecology. During the latter half of the fellowship, Fellows may opt to train with partnered community-based organizations (CBOs), the cornerstone of grassroots development work in East Africa.
• Basic Schedule: GAPP: Kenya runs Monday through Friday, with most weekdays following an on-campus schedule at G-BiACK or with nearby partner CBOs. Weekends allow for time off to explore the region.

Full GAPP Fellowship cost: $3950 includes an orientation and 10-week certificate course, plus one month of lodging, daily food, hands-on training, travelers’ insurance, excursions, Nairobi airport transfers in Kenya. Airfare not included. Limited scholarships available.