Einaudi journey grants ship grad college students overseas

Eighty-three graduate college students traveled internationally for fieldwork final summer season with the assist of analysis journey grants from the Einaudi Center for International Studies. Their work despatched them to each continent besides Antarctica and Australia. Applications are open until March 6 for graduate college students searching for assist for summer season 2026.

Seongmin Shin, international improvement PhD scholar within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, studied biochar carbon markets in Kenya. Biochar is a sustainable, carbon-rich type of charcoal typically used to fertilize soil. Kenyan firms should buy authorities “credits” to account for his or her greenhouse fuel emissions that subsidize biochar manufacturing – with the nationwide objective of internet impartial emissions. 

Shin’s work included interviews with stakeholders throughout a number of steps of the carbon market course of – smallholder farmers, NGOs, analysis organizations and factories – to seek out out who’s gaining from the carbon markets. 

“Potential benefits for farmers can include improved soil fertility, higher and more stable yields and greater resilience to climate shocks,” he stated. “However, I find that financial and decision-making benefits often accrue more to project developers and intermediaries, while smallholder biochar producers tend to receive more limited and conditional returns.” 

Shin first obtained on this work when he labored as a reforestation officer with the federal government in his dwelling nation of South Korea. He planted bushes in 10 international locations world wide earlier than coming to Cornell in 2023 seeking deeper solutions about scale back internet carbon emissions. 

“Meeting people is the greatest part of doing international fieldwork,” stated Shin. “I got new insight and perspective from local people, and I had the opportunity to represent their voices.” One native coordinator is included as a coauthor on an upcoming paper Shin is writing.

“I really appreciated the support of the Einaudi Center that allowed me to stay in Kenya for two months. Without Einaudi, I couldn’t have stayed as long as I needed to.”

Yoselyn Hernández Chaves adopted an analogous path to Cornell. Before beginning her grasp’s diploma within the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Hernández Chaves labored on the National Institute of Innovation and Transfer in Agricultural Technology in her native Costa Rica. She contributed to tasks on the socioeconomic impacts of bean breeding.

“Beans are a crop of great importance in Costa Rica – not only because of their nutritional and economic value,” she stated, “but also due to their role in food security.” 

Current business requirements assume that buyers favor and usually tend to buy mild pink beans – a characteristic related to freshness. As a consequence, producers typically reject bean varieties with “high agronomic or productive potential simply because they do not meet industry-imposed visual standards,” she defined.

Her Einaudi-supported summer season discipline work in Costa Rica included surveys and interviews with customers and stakeholders within the bean business. What bean preferences exist available in the market? And how can producers and plant breeders use this data to create new, sustainable pink beans for the longer term?

“Willingness-to-pay” actions are a method she collected this knowledge from customers. Hernández Chaves and her crew ready 4 varieties of beans for members to judge. Each sort differed in colour and brightness. After evaluating all of the choices, customers proposed honest costs that they’d be prepared to pay for every. 

While members thought of colour to be a related attribute, their buying selections had been extra influenced by worth and model. 

 “Fieldwork creates space for meaningful engagement with people, allowing us to listen to diverse perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of local realities,” she stated. “Often, it is not about teaching, but about learning – the communities we work with have invaluable knowledge and experiences that enrich our research.”

Einaudi journey grant applications are open until March 6 for graduate college students searching for assist for subsequent summer season.

Megan DeMint is new media supervisor for Global Cornell.