A significant percentage of scholarship support for students comes from government donors; the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama all provide critical funds for their young people to attend Zamorano University. In addition, Zamorano alumnae, companies, and individuals raise crucial funds to provide needed opportunities for these deserving young people.
Yuri Magalí Tecún Díaz is one young Guatemalan benefiting from scholarship support at Zamorano University. Entering with the Class of 2012, Yuri is the first in her family to attend university.
While studying at Guatemala’s National School for Agriculture (ENCA) for three years in her teens, Yuri realized she wanted to pursue a degree in crop science to improve agricultural practices in her home country. In 2008, Yuri was accepted at Zamorano, but she couldn’t afford the tuition and instead enrolled at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City, Guatemala. However, impressed by Yuri’s tenacity and hard work, Zamorano’s Guatamalan representative, Rozzanna Pappa, helped the young woman apply for financial aid. With the creation of a Zamorano scholarship endowment fund in Guatemala, three of Yuri’s four years at Zamorano will be paid for by the generosity of donors from throughout her native country. A scholarship program through the United States Agency for International Aid’s office in Guatemala will cover Yuri’s tuition her first year.
Yuri intends to pursue a Science and Production degree at Zamorano. “I came to this university because I like the emphasis on practical learning—that is what we did in ENCA. At Zamorano, however, there are experienced professors with degrees in their specializations who can teach us not just how to grow a particular plant, but everything about it’s cultivation history and genetics, and the different new ways to approach growing and using it.” Yuri is most excited about taking courses in plant botany, cultivation, entomology and integrated pest management. “Someday I will go back to Guatemala and teach others how to better cultivate food plants, understand and care for the soil, support beneficial insects and how to use fewer chemicals. That is what we need in my country, and I know Zamorano will help me be able to do that.”
