Location: Antigua, Guatemala
Village Capital Partner: ByoEarth
Natalia is in the process of conducting a year-long thesis project that explores social entrepreneurial models to sustainably manage organic waste in marginalized communities using case studies in Guatemala and Kenya. She is an adult re-entry student, currently in her senior year at Arizona State University (ASU) looking forward to graduating with a dual major (Global Studies and Psychology) in December 2013. She is also proud to be a bilingual/bicultural student, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and raised in the Washington, DC area. Prior to returning to academia, Natalia gained skills in business management working with various small businesses and non-profit organizations in Arizona, California, Venezuela, and Costa Rica. The most interesting position she held was as the business manager of a sustainable living center in Costa Rica where they held educational programs for local school children, as well as interns and visitors from all around the world. Unique talents? She has an innate natural ability to gather women. She has organized and facilitated women’s empowerment groups for many years in her local community and, for her, doing this comes with much ease. She hopes to apply this talent to working with women within the realm of social entrepreneurship. She is excited about the FMS program because she knows the program attracts a diverse group of passionate people and she is confident she will learn as much from her fellow scouts as from the course and fieldwork.