Margot Conover, Sustainable Development Consultant
Margot
Conover continues to support CRACYP as a consultant, having
previously worked as our Coordinator of Internships,
Volunteers
and Sustainable Development. Margot helped to
develop the volunteer and
intern program into the acknowledged success that it now is.
Margot has handed the post over to Nick
Ohde for 2013. Margot also worked with CADO
as a
consultant on their fair trade and organic certifications.
Margot
developed CRACYP’s Club de Libros
program (a
very popular book club for local children) and did much of the planning
for
an ecotourism project currently in
development. She
has also used her sustainable development expertise in advising CRACYP
and CADO, and writing projects, case studies and grant
applications. Margot leaves us a bank of dynamic teaching
materials
for the book club, plans for development workshops which she has
presented very succcessfully here, and a more formal structure for
volunteer and intern development.
Margot
received an MA in International Relations from the University of
Chicago where she specialized in sustainable development and wrote her
thesis on the commodification of traditional agricultural products and
the impact of fair trade and organic initiatives on local communities.
Previously, Margot majored in political science at
Christopher
Newport University in South East Virginia. She also spent a
year
studying at Oxford University in the
UK.
Margot’s
professional background is wide-ranging and includes community
development work with
socioeconomically disadvantaged inner city students, a conservation
project involving oyster restoration
in the Chesapeake Bay, coordinating a summer study-abroad program at
Oxford University, and managing volunteers on a political campaign.
Living
in a rural Ecuadorian village was a new challenge for
Margot, who gradually became part of the community. She
enjoys being
surrounded by the incredible biodiversity of the area and connecting
with neighbours of all ages. She has a great rapport with the
village children, who help plant tree seedlings and also participate in
Margot's book club, which is so successful that the local government
wants to implement her model in other communities.
Margot
is from the Washington DC area in the United States. She has been with
CRACYP since May 2011, and plans to continue working in Ecuador and in
sustainable development.
Her career lets her unite her three greatest loves: Latin
America, social justice and farms. Margot speaks Spanish and
English.
Green
Progress
Sustainable Development & Reforestation Projects in Rural
Communities from CRACYP, Ecuador
