Campus Universitas (Universidad Campesina)

What we should know about you

Questions answered by Mauricio Gnecco, Founder

1. Imagine yourself 5 years ago compared to where you are today. What achievements surprise you the most?

Having been able to dissolve a toxic business relationship and having understood the great importance of educating to grow.

2. What was a turning point in your career as an entrepreneur?

I was invited to the epWorkshop in Amsterdam in 2017 by Siemens Stiftung. The design and development of the workshop allowed me to make one of the most important decisions of my life, when I became aware (an ahhh! moment) that 3/4 of my life had been linked to organizations that, in one way or another, engage in farmer education. That moment of awareness facilitated by the experts and their presentations, was like an explosion that opened my eyes and neurons to recognize that I had to reorient my life towards the foundation of a farmer university as an educational, commercial and influential platform for the technologies that I have developed, among them – River Ice.

The explosion of consciousness allowed me to simultaneously “see” many issues, including the lack of an experimental model for university education that is within reach of so many farmers who look for it without finding it, because it simply does not exist; to realize that “new” technologies need time and real use to become solid commercial products and that there are many ways of exchanging goods and services (alter-economies), gives me hope for the future!

3. Can you share some random or fun facts about your team?

Our work is mainly in very isolated areas in jungles and plains. Our motto is: “You eat when there is, and you sleep where you can” in deep solidarity with so many families and people who suffer from hunger and lack of shelter.