New Year's Resolution: Raise the bar on education - SDG 4 -Internships, Training, and the road ahead.

The beginning of a new year often presents us with an interesting opportunity, both for looking back at what we have achieved, as well as for setting goals for the year ahead. In that spirit, we wanted to look back on some of the recent initiatives conducted by the project and look ahead to the opportunities this new year brings forth.

SDG 4 states the need to grant access to quality education for everyone who seeks it, identifying education as one of the key pillars necessary for driving sustainable development.

In the area surrounding Santo Thomas, Nicaragua, home of the Nicaforest project, we are witness to the shortcomings of rural education in the country as well as the challenges students and educators alike face on a day-to-day basis.

This is why the Nicaforest project has made SDG 4 Access to Quality Education, a cornerstone of our social impact platform and remains committed to fostering schooling and training opportunities in the rural communities surrounding the project area.

Our team has been hard at work devising and executing new ways for our project to play a role in driving education in the region, in addition to welcoming a new group of interns seeking to enrich their professional background in sustainability.

New Interns - Enabling professional enrichment opportunities while bolstering our team.

In 2023, the Nicaforest project welcomed 3 new interns seeking to enrich their professional background and drive a positive impact on education in the region.

Aspiring environmental professionals, Alba Arroliga Chavarría and Francis

Campos, both Agronomist Engineers, as well as Jeffrey Uriel, Agroforestry Engineer, all played a role in enabling the expansion of the Nicaforest education platform while gaining valuable experience in their field along the way.

Hazel (Middle, in Green), pictured alongside Alba & Fransis during a school visit.

These interns participated and assisted across a wide variety of tasks, including but not limited to:

• Environmental Awareness Talks

• Water analysis

• Data processing

• Forest inventories

• Silvicultural management

We will go further into each of the many activities that took place as part of these core tasks in future entries, exploring how empowering aspiring environmental professionals can have an impact on education across generations.

“Welcoming interns offers the unique opportunity to bolster aspiring professionals while also leveraging their expertise towards fostering access to quality education in rural schools.”

Jimmy Hernandez - Operational Manager at Nicaforest

Looking ahead to a new year full of opportunities, we at Nicaforest are excited to continue driving a positive impact on Education in our surrounding community and look forward to telling you all about them in future entries!