The Panamerican School of Agriculture (EAP, Zamorano) is located in the Zamorano valley, about 20 minutes by car from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Zamorano is a private international undergraduate university that offers natural, infrastructure, human resources and a proven system of extraordinary quality for the comprehensive training of Latin American youth.
Zamorano is renowned for generating creative solutions, focusing on development of rural communities, conservation of forests and watersheds, productivity of small and large agricultural enterprises, and agribusiness training aimed at regional and global markets.
One of the strengths is its diversity of students, young men and women originating from the various socioeconomic strata, ethnic and cultural backgrounds throughout the region. Today, 81% of students receive financial aid to pursue their studies and return to serve their countries successfully in various professional fields.
Zamorano offers four BS programs: Agricultural Science and Production, Agribusiness Management, Food Agro-industry, and Socioeconomic Development and Environment. The educational program stresses academic excellence, instills character and provides practical experience in the agricultural environment through its “Learning by Doing” academic approach.
Since 2007 NSCU CALS international programs has made a special effort in strengthening collaborative efforts with Zamorano. In the last 3 years, we have hosted approximately 11 research interns in various CALS Departments through the Global Training Initiative program. In recent years, two Zamorano graduates have obtained their PhD degrees at NCSU, Dr. Diego Bohorquez (Ecuador, Animal Science) and Dr. Ana Cabrera (Guatemala, Entomology).
Currently, three Zamorano graduates from Peru, Ecuador and Honduras are pursuing graduate degrees and five are research interns in various departments and programs.
CALS GTI Interns Speak:
Bessy Solany Raudales, Tela, Atlantida, Honduras. “I am working in the turfgrass breeding and genetics program in the department of Crop Science, with the Dr. Susana Milla-Lewis. I have a specific project, within the Cold Tolerance Breeding Project, and I’m helping with screening St. Augustine grass germplasm for resistance to gray leafspot and setting up crosses between resistant and susceptible
materials to develop populations with increased resistance to the fungus. I also participate in different activities like work in greenhouses, planting, harvesting data collection for a variety of studies.”
Rolando Aguilera, El Paraiso, Honduras. “I am a research intern in the Soil Arthropod Ecology lab, and my advisor is Dr. Yasmin Cardoza. My project consists on evaluating the efficacy of vermicompost aerated aqueous suspensions or "teas" in inducing resistance in radish against chewing (H. zea) and sucking (M. persicae) generalist pests.”
Indira Medina Torres, San Pedro Sula, Honduras. “I was a research intern in Dr. Cardoza’s 
soil arthropod Ecology lab during Spring and Summer 2010. My project involved studying the effects of field border beneficial habitat in farming systems. My involvement in this project is to determine the diversity of microscopic soil arthropods in these different habitats. Recently I accepted another internship with Dr. Jack Odle in Animal Science and I am participating in a swine nutritional research project.”
Other Zamorano GTI Interns:
Santa Maria Mendoza, Ecuador, Eric Van Heugten’s lab, Animal Science
Nelson Bohorquez, Ecuador, Poultry Science/Vet School
Graduate Students from Zamorano:
David S. Rosero, Ecuador, MS student in Animal Science in Dr. Eric Van Heugten’s laboratory. His thesis project involves evaluating sow and litter responses to supplemental dietary fat in lactation diets
Wilmer J. Pacheco, Santa Barbara, Honduras, MS students in Animal Science in Dr. Charles Stark’s laboratory. His research project consists in evaluating the nutritional value of various proteinaceous and fatty dietary ingredients for broiler production.
Virna L. Saenz, Lima, Peru, PhD student in Entomology co-advised by Dr. Ed Vargo and Coby Schal is conducting her dissertation research on population genetics of bed bugs.
Host a Zamorano Intern!
The primary objectives of this program are to give Zamorano students the opportunity to learn the principles of research, improve their language skills, and expose them to a new culture. It also provides an opportunity for NC State students to experience other cultures right here on campus and for professors to supplement their international activities for tenure and promotion evaluation.
To host a Zamorano intern for 1 semester, each department must provide a stipend that is sufficient to cover living costs (~$3750/student/semester) as well as Global Training Initiative enrollment fees ($400, including liability and health insurance costs). You should also provide a project for them to work on during their time here. Regardless of how long the students are brought over for, the enrollment fee is the same. If the advisor funding source precludes paying GTI enrollment fees directly, the cost maybe added to the student stipend so s/he may cover it out of pocket.
Undergraduate students in Honduras must also do a senior research project and write and defend a thesis based on this internship, so it is possible that the project you assign them could be their thesis project, however this is optional.
For their part, the students pay their travel costs (airfare and visa fees) and are prepared to work full-time in your laboratory or field project. You also may bring graduates for longer periods (11-12 months) at the same stipend level.
It is important to note that these students do not possess an international driver’s license, so work in on-campus labs is preferred. Transportation within campus is not an issue as they can use the Wolfline. However, if additional transportation can be provided, the students would be excellent assets for any field-based projects. Students will be available as soon as January 10 and until the end of April. Students are not required to take any courses so they would be available 40hr/week to work on the project(s) assigned.
I can promise that no matter whether you bring them for an internship of 3 months or an in-service training for up to a year, they will be very responsible, hard-working kids that will be forever grateful for the opportunity you have given them. Also, if the student turns out to be outstanding, you might then have the opportunity to recruit them into your programs as graduate students to help NC State achieve its goals of increased cultural diversity.
Although Zamorano student interns are only available for the Spring semester, students from another Honduran Ag University (UNA) are available during the summer through the same GTI program. I will send an inquiry for interest late in the Spring. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested and/or have any questions. The student adverts need to be sent to Zamorano by mid November to allow enough time for candidate selection and for visa paperwork at both ends. Please share this with anyone you think may be interested in sponsoring one of these students.
If after reading this you have specific questions, please contact me and I will do my best to answer them. If you are interested in sponsoring a student or two, pleae provide me with a brief, general description of the program the students would be working in and also specify whether it is a Spring or Summer project.
I will collect these and depending on when the positions need to be filled in, I will send them to either Zamorano or UNA so students interested in the opportunity can be pre-screened based on their academic and language skills before they contact you directly. Of course, if you’d rather not be contacted directly, let me know and I’ll help you with the selection process or I can put you in touch with the selection personnel at either school. We are very lucky to have bilingual professors at both Universities that can help facilitate these connections.
Thank you,
Dr. Yasmin Cardoza, Assistant Professor, Entomology
If you need more information, check out:
Global Training Initiative Website
Zamorano -click on the English version
Dr. David McNeill, GTI Coordinator, Global Training Initiatives
