Education
Program

Borderlands Earth Care Youth (BECY) inspires and trains the next generation of land stewards by hiring culturally diverse youth living on the US/Mexico borderlands to restore the transnational watersheds they call home. Youth work with rock, wood, seeds, hands, and hearts to return flowing waters and riverside ecosystems to the arid borderlands.

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Youth interns work alongside conservation professionals to make grassroots systemic change in historically overlooked and underserved communities. Simultaneously, youth learn leadership skills and are empowered to develop leadership roles with increased responsibility, accountability, and empathy. Since beginning in 2012, 188 youth have graduated from BECY.​

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The Sonoran Field Course is a comprehensive immersive practical training course that focuses on holistic approaches to the ecological challenges of the southern Arizona and northern Sonora borderlands region designed to inspire the next generation of environmental leaders in the Sky Islands.

Curriculums offered include integrated lectures, workshops, field trips and hands-on learning opportunities covering a wide breadth of topics spanning technical skills in native seed collection and plant propagation, watershed restoration, foundational principles of a restorative economy, cross-border collaboration, humanitarian aid, and more.

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​Ṣu:dagī ‘O Wuḍ Doakag means ‘Water is Life’ in the language of the Tohono O’odham, a desert Indigenous community located along what is today known as the US/Mexico border. 

Ṣu:dagī ‘O Wuḍ Doakag is a paid ecological restoration and rainwater harvesting internship that introduces youth to habitat restoration through the lens of culture and ecology. Youth learn the theories of rainwater harvesting and harvest rain on the Baboquivari High School campus with hands-on activities as well as other learning opportunities. 

Each week, members of the Women Grow Food program engages in hands-on learning at the Deep Dirt Farm greenhouse. This program was founded and led by permaculture practitioner Kate Tirion of Deep Dirt Farm, a graduate of the renowned UC Santa Cruz Farm Program. 

​Members utilize the greenhouse facility, outdoor in ground and above ground garden beds, tools, seeds, and materials as they gain valuable training in permaculture techniques. Members then leave with a share of the day's seasonal harvest.