With the support of a President’s Award for Global Learning, a group of 15 undergraduate students are developing independent research projects and audiovisual narratives with the overarching theme of human and animal migration in times of environmental change. I am pleased to be part of the faculty team that guides these students’ learning experiences, along with Professors Octavio Kano-Galván and Boris Corredor, and Graduate Research Assistant Camilo Montoya. In spring 2024, we traveled to Michoacán, Mexico, to investigate the decline of migratory monarch butterflies and the changing socioeconomic conditions of native communities surrounding the butterfly sanctuaries. In early summer 2024, we went to Quindío, Colombia, to learn about the challenges surrounding the habitats of North American migratory songbirds, as well as the situation that small coffee growers and itinerant coffee pickers face today. We also partnered with several colleagues and institutions in these two countries to expand the interdisciplinary scope of the projects. What follows is a compendium of the students’ projects in their own words.
— Adela Pineda Franco
Resilience in the Face of Change
IN MID-MAY, our group traveled to the Quindío Coffee Axis region of Colombia to conduct interviews with local communities, itinerant coffee pickers, and coffee growers in an effort to comprehend the production process of the coffee bean. With a focus on the changing roles of women, children, and the family system on coffee plantations as migration patterns are altered due to climate change, we hoped to highlight the efforts of coffee pickers who relentlessly persist through global and economic changes. During our two-week visit, we interviewed more than ten women whose roles range from coffee harvester to coffee producer and biologist. Despite their different occupations, many of the women had one thing in common: a love for the nature surrounding them and a drive to sustain it for generations to come. Mónica Ramírez, a fourth-generation caficultora, spoke passionately of the return to her family’s plantation after living in Europe: “Everything was abandoned, so I decided to stay in Filiandia [a small town in Colombia] and help rebuild my family’s coffee farm.”
For many people in the Quindío region, coffee not only represents their culture but also symbolizes the resilience of their families, who have sustained themselves through generations of coffee production. An admiration for nature, a deep love for their families, and above all, resilience, are what motivated these women to continue working in coffee production.
Kinda Abou-Hamdan, Plan II Honors and Public Health; Sophia Ayala, Psychology, Latin American Studies, Plan II Honors; Khyati Malik, Biomedical Engineering, Engineering Honors; Sandi Perez, Plan II Honors and Human Dimensions of Organizations
Shade-Grown Coffee and the Restoration of Songbird Habitat
Our documentary project, “Café Bajo Sombra,” promotes sustainable coffee production in Colombia for local ecology and coffee-growing communities. Our final video documentary will incorporate interviews with coffee farmers, brewers, and researchers to promote shade-grown coffee as a sustainable alternative to traditional coffee. Shade-grown coffee plants are farmed under the shade of other species of plants, which produce forest canopy that migratory birds use as habitat during the critical wintering period. Shade-grown coffee can improve small coffee producers’ access to a premium coffee market and help restore habitat for migratory songbirds, much of which has been lost to deforestation for traditional sun-grown coffee farms. Ultimately, we hope to screen our documentary in Austin coffee shops and film festivals to raise consumer and business awareness, and to build demand for shade-grown coffee.
During our visit to Quindío, we learned how to recognize coffee as part of a system that stretches from soil microbiomes to songbirds whose movement across hemispheres during migration connects farms in Quindío to coffee sellers in Austin. The beans consumers purchase are as much a part of the system as the plants that produce them. Our documentary will show viewers how they can support the ecological and farming communities that surround coffee production by choosing shade-grown coffee as their morning beverage.
Emma Abraham, Public Health and Plan II Honors; Shannon Henry, Geography, Sustainability Studies, and Sociology; Sruthi Rayaprolu, Canfield Business Honors and Finance; Devon Voyles, English
Promoting Ecotourism in Colombia’s Coffee Regions
The core of our project addresses the declining Colombian coffee industry and promotes sustainable ecotourism as a solution. Our research also looks at challenges facing the industry, including sociological, economic, and environmental issues. At the sociological level, the project identifies the aging population of coffee farmers, the lack of interest among the younger generation in inheriting these farms, and the urbanization trend leading to a labor shortage in the coffee sector.
Economically, the industry is facing competition from other crops, pricing challenges in the sale of unroasted beans, and an overall decline in profitability. Environmentally, we delve into the issues posed by the mountainous terrain of the Colombian coffee regions, the increased water usage and soil degradation from coffee cultivation, and the predicted 50 percent reduction in coffee production by 2050 due to climate change. To address these challenges, our project proposes the promotion of ecotourism in Colombia’s coffee regions. The aim of introducing responsible tourism experiences, such as coffee tastings, is to create awareness, increase coffee purchases, and ultimately support the sustainability of the industry. The project plans to leverage various media, including short films, vlogs, and social media, to reach both local and international audiences. Through this multifaceted approach, we aspire not only to raise awareness about the state of the Colombian coffee industry but also to provide a viable solution in the form of ecotourism.
Katres Brahmbhatt, Clinical Nutrition, Public Health, Human Development and Ecology; Eswar Gopalakrishnan, Neuroscience Honors; Hannah Rashid, Chemistry; Aadhunik Sundar, Plan II Honors and Biology
¡Viva Monarch! A VR Tool for Learning and Conservation
VivaMonarch is a virtual reality (VR) app we designed for the Apple Vision Pro to create awareness about the monarch butterfly and its generational preservation behavior. The app provides an immersive experience that allows users to explore the migration and life cycle of monarchs in an interactive and engaging way. VivaMonarch also aims to draw a clear metaphor between the journey of these butterflies and human migration, emphasizing our shared environment, conduct, and mutual dependencies. The app illustrates how environmental changes impacting the monarchs are indicative of broader ecological and societal risks that could affect humans, highlighting the importance of proactive conservation efforts. To deepen engagement and expand our reach, VivaMonarch is also launching a comprehensive social media campaign across different platforms. Through storytelling and interactive content, we hope to connect with users globally through this campaign, encouraging them to learn about and participate in environmental conservation. With the integration of social media and our VR app, we offer a multifaceted educational approach that is informative, accessible, and inspiring.
Aaron Doan, International Relations; Cynthia Fernanda Mendoza Pimentel, Biology; Jan Steinhauer, Computer Engineering
