Universidad San Francisco de Quito - USFQ
EN-3: Student Life

The club EcoReps is an inclusive organization of students with the purpose of carrying out practices, workshops, and projects that contribute to the sustainability of the university, through the support of technicians specialized in the different fields of the environmental area and who work together with the Office of Innovation and Sustainability.

USFQ’s Organic Garden is a mandatory class to agriculture introduction. The garden is located some 6 miles away from the University in a 2.4 acre leased piece of land.
Each semester there is generally between 7 to 10 students in the class where everything from seed planting to genetic research is carried out. In addition to students, there are 3 fulltime workers that oversee the experimental farm. Students follow a scheduled production process and are required to assist daily.

Besides cultivating in season-produce, the experimental farm also serves as a seedbed for native plants such as Chilca, Guabo, Santa Maria, Ajisillo and podocarpus, which are then transplanted to parks and ravines. Everything is organically managed, from the fertilizer made form quail excrement, to the red earthworms for compost as well as fumigating with trichoderma mushrooms for pest control.

Produce from the farm is sold to the campus community through packs called Pack Dragonagro to promote the consumption of locally produced healthy foods.

Ser Planeta is an annual conference that started in 2019 hosted by the Office of Innovation and Sustainability with the aim of engaging students and the community in current sustainability and planetary issues. Ser Planeta seeks to educate, communicate and inspire the community to participate in the sustainable development of their environment. The 2019 agenda focused on on campus activities and a panel on the topic of sustainable cities.

Mutante is an exhibition that shows ongoing research by collaborative teams from different USFQ schools, as well as the results of exchanges between professors and students during the semester. All the exhibited projects have as a common denominator the inclusion of various artistic media within a transversal research process that encompasses different areas of study. It is hosted by the University's Design Lab DLAb which is an experimental space to drive trans disciplinary projects and research joining art and science to explore possible futures.

The University offers a Climbing/Hiking 3-credit class. The program started in 99 as a club and the then president of the club remains as class instructor today. The class is based on taking a theory in mountaineering, rappel and ropes. Besides attending all theory classes students have to take at least 3 weekend trips during the semester.
The class has a policy of leave no trace behind but has no theory on it. As for rock climbing the policy is to use previous bolts.

USFQ has held workshops on zero-waste life, composting, hydroponic agriculture and urban agriculture during the annual Amor Naturae conference and events series and also talks and webinars hosted by different academic divisions on campus such as the School for Biological Science and Environment, Environmental Engineering and Agriculture.

Internships are offered with the Office of Innovation and Sustainability participating as research assistants in a variety of projects. In the reporting perior projects have been related to the Smart Campus Initiative, WISE program (Women in STEM Entrepreneurship), and consulting projects related to Food Waste and Loss Prevention, the scoping of public policy for plastics regulation in the Pacific and the development of the White Book on Circular Economy.

In addition, USFQ practices sustainable agriculture with several projects carried out in its experimental farm where students are part of the research including. In 2020-2021 as part of the Smart Campus Initiative thesis students and interns participated in the development of an organic waste treatment system (biodigestor) currently being installed.