EARTH University was established by Costa Rican law in 1986 as a private, non-profit, international university, with the support of the Costa Rican government, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. EARTH was founded at the close of the Central American civil wars based on the premise that local leadership would be key to achieving peace and shared prosperity among communities struggling with poverty and limited futures. With this transformative premise in mind, EARTH set out to train and prepare future generations of values-driven leaders for rural areas. The mission of EARTH University is to prepare leaders with ethical values to contribute to sustainable development and to achieve a prosperous and just society. EARTH offers a world-class scientific and technological education in agricultural sciences that emphasizes ethical entrepreneurship and a strong socio-environmental commitment. Over the past three decades, EARTH University has consolidated a distinctive experiential platform for rural leadership education, graduating 2500+ agents of change from over fifty countries, primarily in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. Shepherded by a prestigious international faculty, EARTH currently has over 430 students from nearly 40 countries, half of whom are women. Over 80% of EARTH’s students are from rural areas, and over 90% receive some level of scholarship support. EARTH graduates are using their entrepreneurial leadership to address the greatest challenges of our times. Over 80% of our graduates return to their home countries, where they are starting businesses and creating jobs, improving access to healthy affordable food, advancing sustainability, taking on leadership roles in the public sector, and having significant positive impacts on their communities in myriad other ways.
