Northfield, Minn.—Carleton College student Sara Hooker '13 (Belfast, Ireland) has earned a Davis Projects for Peace grant worth $10,000.

Hooker, a double major in economics and international relations, along with a concentration in political economy, will utilize the grant to work with a group of low-income urban farmers in São Paulo, Brazil. Urban farming has grown rapidly in São Paulo, according to Hooker, and serves as an important source of income for poorer areas of the city. The project will work with a small group of farmers in the east of the city to create a system of pooling produce so they can supply three larger organic markets around the city. The project goal is to raise the income of the farmers and their families, as well as strengthening ties in the community itself. 

“I am so incredibly excited about this opportunity,” Hooker said. She studied abroad in Brazil in 2012 and became involved with some of the urban agriculture efforts in both São Paulo and Florianópolis. “The opportunity to return and work directly with this movement is so meaningful to me, and I am really indebted to the Davis Projects for Peace foundation which has made it possible.” 

Carleton has received seven grants since the program’s inception in 2007, impacting six different countries. Hooker’s grant marks the second time a Carleton student will use the funds in Brazil.

In the its sixth year, the Davis Projects for Peace program is an invitation to undergraduates at the American colleges and universities in the Davis United World College Scholars Program to design grassroots projects that they will implement during the summer of 2013. The objective is to encourage and support today's motivated youth to create and try out their own ideas for building peace. Kathryn Wasserman Davis, an accomplished internationalist and philanthropist, makes the Davis Projects for Peace possible.