University of Puerto Rico at Ponce

English Department

MEMORANDUM

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DATE: December 6 , 2021
TO: Professor Pier LeCompte Zambrana
FROM: Zorimar Rodríguez Figueroa, Wilmarie González Echevarría, Melanie
de Jesús Alvarado, and Fernando Vallés Sepúlveda.
SUBJECT: Progress Report

Introduction
Agriculture is a necessary basic component of any community. It is known for being a
provider of food and sustenance to the country. In these times, it is viewed as a crucial
component in the advancement of the country's economy, as it provides new prospects for
new beginnings. To support this desire to conserve agriculture, the University of Puerto Rico
in Ponce, as part of the ENGL-4021 class requirements, encourages students to undertake
community service hours in collaboration with the Pro-Agricultural Student Coalition
(“Coalición de Estudiantes Pro-Agricultura” or CEPA in Spanish), to build a garden on
campus. The Atabey Garden, as it is known, is the location where each student completes
various tasks. To support students in completing the requisite hours, ENGL-4021 allows them
to go to different orchards or farms. In the case of our progress report, one of our classmates
went to Luz Esmeralda’s Farm and spent eight hours there. The completion of the hours took
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from September 17 to December 1 .
The Technical Writing course encourages students to strengthen their writing skills by
focusing on different forms of technical writing. This type of document involves technical
aspects that we, as students and future professionals, will encounter in different forms. We
learned numerous aspects of how to produce technical documents during the semester, from
August to December 2021. In the course's final product, all technical document features must
be implemented to the Progress Report. The activities and contributions that students of
Group 1 (Zorimar Rodríguez Figueroa, Wilmarie González Echevarría, Melanie de Jesús
Alvarado, and Fernando Vallés Sepúlveda) achieved by working a minimum of eight hours in
the garden are detailed inside this report. Said activities and contributions were worked
alongside the goals established by CEPA and Luz Esmeralda’s Farm.
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English Department

Student Organization CEPA

The foundation of "Coalición Estudiantes Pro Agricultura", or CEPA, is a non-profit
organization whose mission is to promote a positive and innovative image of agriculture in
our society. CEPA encourages members of the community to participate in the process of
growing and preparing their own food, as well as guiding university members into proper
knowledge of the crops and practices that anybody may use when harvesting in their own
homes. This also contributes to increased local production and improved food quality.
With the support of professor Dr. Jose R. Villalón-Sorzano, the organization was
created. CEPA has been encouraging students to harvest crops at the institution and consider
it a part of their lives since its establishment in 2014. The maintenance schedule was designed
to allow all students to attend without being interrupted by courses, and it is normally
Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00pm
to 1:00pm, and Fridays from 9:00am to 10:00am. During the maintenance, a member of the
directive was present all the time to assign duties to the students and explain how to clean,
plant and recover the crops. During the time students labored in the garden, the leadership
and guidance demonstrated during maintenance were quite significant.

The CEPA organization directive of 2021-2022 is constituted by:

● President: Erika D. Plaza Fuentes
● Vice president: Miguel J. Costas Sabatier
● Secretary: Arelis Acevedo Santiago
● Treasurer: Jerielis Morales Rodríguez
● Public Relations: Génesis Domínguez Ortíz
● Historian: Francisco A. Castro Rivera

The directive's goals for this year's work at the garden were to plant and harvest new products
not previously used and to provide more online conferences to inform the college community
about their work to entice more members to join their movement.

Luz Esmeralda’s Farm

Luz Esmeralda’s Farm offers agricultural services to the community. Its mission is to
promote agriculture and offer to the community a good quality product free of insecticides.
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The interest in hydroponic systems arose when they attended a conference that they were
offering in an institution and that increased the interest of the family. In 2019, the name of
Luz Esmeralda arose in honor of her mother. They began with the construction of hydroponic
tables where coriander was harvested. They then expanded their crops to basil, lettuce, and
“recao”.
The objective of Finca Luz Esmeralda this year is to increase the distribution of your
crops and expand the hydroponic tables so that there is more planting of coriander and lettuce
so more people can consume their products.

Tasks
The tasks involved the following:
I. Atabey Garden
● Fixing up the Atabey Garden area after a year of abandonment due to the COVID-19
pandemic. This includes cutting the tall grass, pulling out weeds, replanting seedlings
and repainting tire planters.
● Completing a minimum of eight voluntary work hours on the Garden.
● Attending conferences that inform students about agricultural procedures and terms.
II. Luz Esmeralda’s Farm
● Nourish the water of the hydroponic system.
● Collecting coriander and romaine lettuce from the hydroponic system.
● Packing coriander and lettuce for distribution.

Activities
Below is a table with the online conferences hosted as part of the required hours.

Place Date Conference Name Host

Atabey Garden September 17, 2021 Huertos Caseros: Comenzando con AgrosolucionPR
el pie derecho

Atabey Garden September 24, 2021 Carbón Activado Ada Ramona

Atabey Garden October 5, 2021 Introducción Huerto Ecológico Agro. Irene Román
Cambio Climático y el Huerto

Atabey Garden October 7, 2021 ¿Por qué tener un huerto? Agro. Irene Román
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English Department

Atabey Garden October 14, 2021 Huertos Caseros: Una estrategia AgrosolucionPR
ante la crisis

Luz Esmeralda’s November 18, 2021 La agricultura en hidropónicos Gloriliz Rivera

Farm Colón

Crops
The crops planted this semester will be reviewed in this section:
I. Plants in the Atabey Garden this semester
This semester, CEPA's directive planned on planting sweet peppers, tomatoes,
coriander, lettuce, sunflowers, cosmo flowers, and zinnias, but all of the plants died due to
numerous protests and a strike. The pumpkin seeds were the only plant that survived the lack
of care.
II. Plants in the Luz Esmeralda Farm’s in this semester
Luz Esmeralda’s farm has planted lettuce, romaine lettuce, basil, “recao” and
coriander. However, during the month of November they were only harvesting romaine
lettuce and coriander.

Unfinished Tasks
Complete the orchard's cleanup and refurbishment. We did not complete plowing the
garden and clearing the weeds due to a lack of time.

Futures Projections
The future projections and the aspirations of each orchard will be discussed in this section.
I. CEPA
As projections for the future, we hope that in the next few years more than 10 students
will be able to attend the garden and that the global pandemic caused by COVID-19 will not
be a limitation. That way, there will be more volunteers forming part of CEPA. In addition,
workshops and conferences can be offered face-to-face for the university and other
communities for more attention and learning. As a future forecast, CEPA proposed
transplanting the seeds due to various factors that caused several of the planted plants to die.

II. Luz Esmeralda’s Farm

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English Department

As future projections, Luz Esmeralda’s Farm wants to expand its crops and
hydroponic table so more people will be able to consume its products. On the other hand,
they want to offer more conferences to institutions to emphasize the importance of
agriculture. Also, they would like to make their own “sofrito” with their products so that
more people will be able to enjoy it. Finally, they would like to rebuild the roof of the
hydroponic tables that have been affected due to the atmospheric phenomena.

Limitations
The last two years have been unusual, not only in the current semester, but in
everyone's daily lives due to a worldwide pandemic triggered by the COVID-19 virus in the
year 2020. It was tough to secure the work hours in the garden due to our limitations. The
Atabey Garden at the University of Puerto Rico in Ponce (UPRP) only authorized 10 people
per meeting due to COVID-19 guidelines. During these meetings, the students were required
to maintain a safe distance from one another and wear a mask at all times. On the other hand,
that affected our work in the Atabey orchard and the Luz Esmeralda’s farm, was the
consistent rain in the last months. During the month of November, the campus went on strike
and made it impossible to enter. They cancelled meetings and disrupted the schedules of the
students. Other limitations included the requirement to complete hours on other farms, which
included contacting ahead days in advance to be able to attend. At times, these meetings
conflicted with classes which was one of the reasons why students could not attend.

Conclusion
Agriculture has always been a major aspect in human history. It marked an important
turning point in human civilization. It took our ancestors generations of hard effort and
dedication to develop and perfect agricultural techniques to produce high-quality products. It
became clear that the farmer must have a passion for the land in order to do his job. This
project awakened our interest and taught us about the value of agriculture. We were able to
experience the sensations of working in the agricultural field as a result of this opportunity.
We acquired a lot of information and gained a lot of positive experiences as a result of this
project. Despite the ongoing pandemic we were able to socialize, work, and learn in a more
enjoyable and lively manner at the meetings.
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Appendix A: Service Logs

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University of Puerto Rico at Ponce
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Appendix B: Minutes of Group 1 Meetings

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Appendix C: Pictures of Students

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References:
66, C. (2020, December 10). La Importancia de la Agricultura en Tiempos de

Pandemia del COVID-19. Colmena 66.

https://www.colmena66.com/es/blog/blog/2020/12/10/la-importancia-de-la-agricultur

a-en-tiempos-de-pandemia-del-covid-19

Agricultura y alimentos | Blogs del Banco Mundial. (2021, November 19). Banco

Mundial Blogs.

https://blogs.worldbank.org/es/search%3Ff%5B0%5D%3Dlanguage%3Aes%26f%5B

1%5D%3Dtopic%3A310?page=0