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, scheduled to begin in September, 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 Dená 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.
  

Course Overview: 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.

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 Program Fellowship cost: $3950 includes 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. 

Course-only cost: $425.