“Vision is the best manifestation of creative imagination and the primary motivation of human action. It’s the ability to see beyond our present reality, to create, to invent what does not yet exist, to become what we are not yet. It gives us the capacity to live out of our imagination instead of our memory... More than any other factor, vision affects the choices we make and the way we spend our time.”

-- Stephen Covey, First Things First

La Cosecha leaders know well the power of imagination. We also know that, “While it may be foolish to live in dreams, it is fatal to live without them.”

At La Cosecha we place a strong emphasis on experiential education. Classroom education plays a clear and vital role, but children genuinely understand best what they do, not merely what they see or hear.

Thus, rather than being passive recipients in a “spray and pray” environment – spraying children with information and praying that something sticks – the school will mix “learning guides” with leading edge instructional practices. Harnessing the power of instructional technology to facilitate learning in multiple disciplines relevant to students’ futures will expand learning opportunities while minimizing the demands for full-time, onsite teachers.

Recognizing that true education is “not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” (W.B. Yeats), children will not merely learn, they will learn how best to learn given their individual learning styles. Beyond many forms of traditional education, our aim is to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed for fruitful and successful lives and to fulfill their dreams in the life paths they choose to travel.

Our plans for a permaculture and dairy farm are admittedly ambitious.

In addition to providing a source of quality food and learning experiences for the children of La Cosecha, we aim through the farm and ancillary activities to equip children with valuable life and business skills.

Working with agricultural specialists, veterinarians, and other experts, we seek to enrich students’ appreciation and understanding of the miracle of life, ecology, and creation care.

Given the need for quality food products in the province of Manabí – good dairy products, cheeses, and ice cream – there is an opportunity to meet this need while creating jobs and generating revenues to support the work of La Cosecha. In the process, students will be exposed to a variety of skills: technology, engineering, graphic design, packaging, marketing, sales, management and accounting.

We intend to partner with colleges and universities in Ecuador and the U.S. to enlist expertise in a number of fields that will benefit not only La Cosecha students, but the broader community.

“There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.” – Winston Churchill

Equine-assisted therapy (EAT) encompasses a range of treatments involving activities with horses to promote human physical and mental health. Therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted learning (EAL) entail an experiential approach to learning that promotes the development of a variety of life skills.

While horseback riding will be available to all students, EAT will be available for those students diagnosed as having needs for which this therapy is likely to be highly effective.

A wood shop is near and dear to the heart of La Cosecha’s founder, Jenica Brigham. This dream has percolated for decades as she grew up immersed in construction.

In addition to providing students an opportunity to build and sell arts and crafts, kids will experience the joy of enriching the lives of others through their creations. From hand-painted wood products to greeting cards and woodworking, children will have their own bank accounts. They will learn not only the basics of business, but also learn to save for future schooling opportunities and homes. As with other related businesses, all profits will be used to support and sustain the work of La Cosecha.

For older students with an artistic bent or engineering tendencies, opportunities will be provided to design and build furniture and homes, learning under seasoned supervisors and expert mentors to work individually and collaboratively in teams.

In the process, students will learn valuable computer and manufacturing skills and will experience first-hand the joy of bringing ideas to fruition in products of value to the local community.

Currently, quality medical care is over two hours away in either direction. This means that injuries or illnesses that could be treated easily at a local medical clinic can in some cases become life-threatening.

La Cosecha aims to be a catalyst for the creation of a nonprofit medical clinic that would serve Ayampe, Puerto López, and the surrounding area. Such a clinic would be of tremendous value to locals as well as to future residents of La Cosecha’s Ka Ohi Ana beach homes community.

Substantial research has already been conducted on the specific needs of the local community by students from the University of London. Preliminary proposals based on this research will be forthcoming and collaborative work is underway with a local doctor from Quito, Ecuador’s capital city.

La Cosecha kids will room with three to five other children in rooms of a higher quality than these children have ever known. Initially, boys and girls will live in separate wings of a building. As the number of kids grow, separate buildings will be available, boys in one, girls in the other.

While shared space will be common as in college dormitories, each child will have their own “nook,” a private space in which they can be alone to study and engage in personal interests when not in school or working on school projects.

We will also pair slightly older girls with younger girls. and older boys with younger boys in a “big brother, big sister” modeling and mentoring program.

La Cosecha classrooms will consist of traditional classrooms in tandem with workshop areas and open-air laboratories. Advanced instructional technology will expand the range of subjects available to students while increasing the quality of instruction beyond what residential, full-time teachers alone could provide.

Classroom curriculum will focus on personal character development – spiritual, moral, social -- along with essential life and employment skills. Under the watchful and discerning eyes of La Cosecha staff, students will explore and discover their individual developmental and career paths. Some will choose to work in La Cosecha-related businesses and be an asset to the local community. Others will seek employment elsewhere or continue their education at institutions of higher education in Ecuador or internationally.

Supplementing classroom education will be workshops ranging from woodwork, farming, plumbing, electricity, auto mechanics, art, and music. Visiting faculty and students from U.S. colleges and universities will expose La Cosecha students to a breadth, depth, and quality of education.

While respecting many of the values of traditional Latin American culture, we aim to be countercultural in one key regard: we seek to show that girls are equal to boys in many areas and should have life choices beyond restricted traditional roles. We even dare to dream of “all women” companies led by La Cosecha graduates that could shatter outdated and sorely limiting traditional role norms and expectations.

What’s more, relationships have already been developed with local companies who can send representatives to teach electrical and plumbing skills, opening doors to a variety of employment opportunities for graduating students.

Utilizing the products of La Cosecha’s farmland, we aim to develop a La Cosecha product line to meet the huge need for top quality dairy products – butter, cheeses, ice creams – throughout Ecuador. There is little competition for quality dairy products throughout the region, and we have developed good connections with the local grocery stores. Other distribution outlets will be pursued as production capacity increases.

Consistent with our emphasis on experiential education, we aim to expose our students to a combination of “hands-on” and “big picture” business practices and skills. Hands-on by physically getting hands dirty in the soil of La Cosecha’s farmland, and big picture through exposure to the full scope of business agriculture from crop production to packaging, marketing, operations and finance.

What’s more, senior projects through key academic institutions in the U.S. can meet the educational requirements of American college and university students working in related fields from agriculture to veterinary medicine and livestock care, while simultaneously investing vital intellectual capital in our students and local community.