International Friendship, Intrinsic Interaction
I couldn’t remember her name, but I could remember her sunshine smile. I could remember her singing spirit of willingness to cultivate a conversation in the most seemingly constrained moments. From the field to the library to the cafeteria, I wanted to put a name to her face — to the upbeat eyes that reminded me so vividly of my own little sister(Saanvi)’s eyes. That is… until she put a name to my face.
“Sibani, right? Sibani, my name is Karen.”, she exclaimed one day, as I was walking back to my room from EARTH University’s library. “Mucho gusto!” (Nice to meet you.)
At that moment, I was rendered speechless — it was as if interaction had defied an infinity of silence to substantiate sincerity.
Exactly five weeks into my experience at EARTH University, I officially met Karen Gaona, fourth-year environmental science and sustainable resources major. Confident yet compassionate, Karen lives with a relentless spirit of exploration, a hallmark of EARTH’s culture. Her dreams span the world — to travel to every country, to work in banana production for the Dole company, and to end the Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4(TR4). But her most beautiful sense of service lies in her desire to trace it all back to her beloved fruit, the banana.
One of 400 handpicked students worldwide chosen to attend EARTH University, Karen subsists on discovery. Prompted by her friend’s beckoning to evolve her life through further education, she took a leap of faith giving up her job at an Ecuadorian call center, instead aspiring to center her career around agriculture. After completing her application to EARTH one hour before the deadline and garnering acceptance through a multistep process, Karen left the province of Loja in Ecuador for the first time in her life to chart a new course in Costa Rica.
Thousands of miles away from family, Karen spends hours amidst the fields, labs, and classrooms, determined to the delve into the reservoir of resources at EARTH. Her favorite class so far is “Soils”, a fifteen-week course for third years at EARTH that stimulated her interest in alternatives for banana production from the ground-up. Ambitious and affectionate, Karen is driven to rise by raising the foundation that has built her up. “My education is dependent on bananas”, she explained. As a scholarship-funded student, she is going to school for free because EARTH University’s revenue from banana production finances a portion of her tuition.
The banana’s economic power burgeons Karen’s journey, allowing her to not only to study at EARTH, but also to stretch her service-oriented nature abroad. Last summer, Karen completed an internship in Ecuador’s Dole Food Company that enlivened her passion for combating the Panama disease(Fusarium Wilt)in bananas. Panama disease, specifically the Tropical Race 4(TR4) strain, hampers the production of Cavendish, the world’s largest banana variety. Next year, Karen plans to conduct more research on this topic at University of California-Davis in the United States before going on to complete her master’s degree in Brazil.
(Read more about Panama TR4 Disease here: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/devastating-banana-disease-may-have-reached-latin-america-could-drive-global-prices)
With an energetic charm that pierces past language barriers to pay it forward, Karen has a future full of adventures waiting to be unlocked. Unafraid yet understanding, she immediately grasped any lingering sense of homesickness that laced my experience at EARTH. As a student researcher doing a project in banana Sigatoka disease control, I was moved by her and her mission — a young Ecuadorian woman on a quest to alleviate Panama disease while chasing a global education. Through shared smiles, we devoured weekend pizza over our longing love for cheese. We discussed how experiences like EARTH, whether short or long in duration, formulate “families of friends” worth a lifetime. But, most of all, we discovered how thirst for exploration truly enlivens when it strives to serve one’s element. By element, I mean the deeply-influential aspect(s) that build the keystone(s) of our lives, whether it be hometowns, foundations, people — or in Karen’s case — a fruit industry like the banana.
In Karen, I found a kindred-spirit committed to the roots that allowed her to blossom as a person. I found an international sister who was ready to reach across the aisle to teach me that any innovation(and interaction) we seek as humans is highly intrinsic.
