Field y Futuro: Dr. Pablo Lamino

This episode features Dr. Pablo Lamino, a former Zamorano University student and University of Florida faculty member. 

The interview highlighting Zamorano's unique 'learn-by-doing' educational model and international student experience. 

UFAEC student hosts Grace Bastow and Alexis Westgate guide the conversation to connect sustainable agriculture practices with cultural identity and leadership development. 

The episode emphasizes global agricultural education, career pathways, and the importance of experiential learning.

Transcript

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Grace Bastow

Welcome to Streaming Science, a student-driven science communication project that brings scientists, their science, and their stories directly to you.

Lexi Westgate

This episode is part of Field y Futuro, a series exploring how sustainable agriculture meets culture and how hands-on global agricultural and natural resource education shapes the future.

Grace Bastow

My name is Grace Bastow, and I'm a third-year agricultural education and communications student at the University of Florida.

Lexi Westgate

And I'm Lexi Westgate, also a third-year agricultural education and communications student at UF.

Grace Bastow

The topic of this episode is the cultural and educational environment at Zamorano University.

Lexi Westgate

To help us explore this topic, we're joined by Dr. Pablo Lamino, an assistant professor in the Agricultural Education and Communication Department at the University of Florida. Zamorano University, located in Honduras, is known for its holistic, experiential "learning by doing" approach to agricultural and natural resource education.

Grace Bastow

Dr. Lamino works in the field of agricultural education and has strong connections with Zamorano through advising and mentoring students connected to the institution.

Lexi Westgate

We discussed experiential learning, international education, and student development, and why these topics matter for students, communities, and the future of agricultural and natural resource leadership.

Grace Bastow

Keep listening to learn more, and join us on this journey across cultures, campuses, and sustainability.

Lexi Westgate

Let's get started.

Grace Bastow

So, Dr. Lamino, can you please start by telling us a little bit about your background and how you became connected with Zamorano University?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

So thank you so much for this time. Thinking about my background, so I think everything started back in Ecuador, where I am from. So when I was looking for places to go, like an undergrad, I was emphasizing more on the environmental development piece. So in Ecuador, they mentioned several times about Zamorano University, but it was outside the country; it is located right now. In Honduras, I was like, " Okay, how can I get to this place? So I started to reach out to different people and alumni from the University. They mentioned the system that they have, about learning by doing. So it was quite different from the ones that we have in many places, including Ecuador, in terms of the system of education. So I applied to the University. It was quite interesting, because it was a bit expensive compared to the average income that you have in Ecuador. I applied for, like, a scholarship. The problem with this scholarship is that they were funding students, or, like, the potential students, under a specific amount of income. I was not in that area because my family's conditions were, you know, class, it was tough because I wanted to go there, thinking of the restrictions I received because of this scholarship ended up making me think about what are the opportunities? I was reaching out to the water institution and other funders, and I noticed they have their own scholarship. I applied to that one. I said, you know, we understand that you have a lot of potential, so we want to give you this partial scholarship. That said, okay, that's great. So I went to Zamorano. I spent four years there. So it was a really good time. It was a learning process, because what's a different system? It was my first cultural shock, because even though Ecuador and Honduras speak the same language and the way that they treat each other, the relationship and the connections are quite different. So that was my first shock, and later on, that prepared me for the internship that I did at Texas Tech that helped me to move here as part of my academic path, with a master's and Phd in the same institution, and later I'm finishing here as a faculty so that's kind of like the summary of my part in Zamorano. Right now I'm still connected. Right now, I'm serving as the faculty advisor to the organization that we have here in the UF and trying to bring business scholars, interns, or alumni from the University to support with a master's and Phd programs, as an advisor. So that has been my current role with the institution, and that's summarizing how I ended up being part of Zamorano,

Grace Bastow

Yeah, that's really interesting. I think that the perspective from like, an American is that Latino countries all have the same culture, so the fact that there was even a culture shock from those two different countries is really interesting to me. Can you tell us about, like, your transition from undergrad to grad school?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

Okay, so that's a really good question, because it was like a different system in Zamorano; we have the system of learning by doing. So it's going to be half of the time, like thinking that day that we have eight hours, four hours, you're going to be working on the field, and you're going to be learning by doing the other half. You're going to be in classes. So that system helped me to be cautious on how to use my time wisely. Because, as you know, you don't have that much time to do activities outside the classroom or something work or like the field. So when I moved well in terms of my internship, that was like the door for me from later on, from the grad school. The reason why I applied to this internship was because it was connected to well development during that time, that in my fourth year in Zamorano, in my senior year, I was working with kids that were suffering from food insecurity. Most of them like the parent they left them, so they were struggling really hard to find bonding with the people and building trust. So I use agriculture as a way to help them to see that it goes beyond you. With agriculture, you can find connections with people. You can find ways to feed the people. I use this excuse as a way to sell myself during the letter of intent to this internship. And this internship opened me the door for a graduate program in the US. So I got a lot of cultural shock during my first time in the US, because just to give you an example, something really simple, the first sprint that is, I thought that was going to be the same the way that we agreed to each other in the US, similar to Latin America. So I approached a faculty member at Texas Tech, and I was trying to give a kiss the cheek, and she was, Oh, my God, what are you doing? Sorry, I'm doing something wrong. Later on, they explained, and I was like, okay. I understand the important part of the cultural piece. I think that was my jumping from my undergrad to my graduate program. The difference in my graduate program is that I had to learn how to do research, because in Zamorano, we know about research, but we are not the ones who are creating it, or mainly using the research that is conducted in the US to feed our students with new knowledge, but we are not the ones who are building but we research about keeping the students connected or providing some information based on what we have done. So that was the first time that I noticed the importance about research that helped me to understand the different doors that you can open as part of conducting a good investigation.

Lexi Westgate

Okay, that is very interesting. Could you explain a little more on the connection between the University of Florida and Zamorano and how, like, the students from both universities interact?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

Okay, so it has been, like almost 20 years since we have this connection with Zamorano, there has been like, different process. I mean, like, sometimes we got, like, a really good momentum that you can find a lot of projects online, depending on the person in Zamorano and the also, like, the connection they have at UF it may change, but right now, like they can the main connection that we have is through like the internships, because as part of the Zamorano program in your last year, you need to do like an internship. It could be locally in Honduras or in other parts of Europe or the United States. Many of them apply to University of Florida, Because Florida is the closest in terms of the weather conditions. So that's why many of the people are applying here to UF so we try to guide them through the process of applications. We try to provide ideas also to the faculty, because many of them are willing to bring students from other places. We try to facilitate the process of understanding bringing someone from Zamorano. So that's the main aspect about the connection that we have. Of course, we also have other faculty here that is from Zamorano. He's in human nutrition, and he also supports the organization. But I will say that the main way that we have been connecting is in that area with the internships. And right now we have around 50 grad students in the organization, so we are spread all over Florida. So that has been a good way to support upcoming generations, because if you're doing a good job, faculty are going to be willing to bring more people from the same institution. It's going to be in the internships and in the graduate programs, the relationship that we have with someone right now, currently,

Grace Bastow

That's really interesting. I think that the international intercultural communication, collaboration and stuff is super important, especially in agriculture, because it's pretty universal globally, like everyone needs agriculture to eat and survive. So I think it's really important. With that being said, we would like to talk more about the learning by doing model that Zamorano has. So could you explain what that model looks like for students on a daily basis?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

I'm gonna explain based on my experience, because I know that it has been changing. Maybe lying if I said that, it's gonna be the current system. But back when I was in the school, or like in the university, I can recall that I every day I woke up a t around 530 to pray, like, we have, like, an a specific kind of place. By 530 I woke up, got my breakfast, you got like, almost, like an hour to eat, and they're gonna provide you the food. So after that, like, around 630 you need to go to the class, and you're gonna spend four to five hours in the class. You're gonna have different kind of subjects. And now. After that, like from 630 to 1030 and you're going to be in classes, you're going to have two hours, not 1230 you need to go. We have different kind of models, so it's going to depends on where you are right now, I heard that they are going to be changing because they're going to emphasize the first year in agri industry. Second year in environmental development, or year is going to be agro business. Third year is going to be in agronomy. My year it was depending on the specific needs that we have in the university. You spend a good amount of time in the models, so you can learn how to raise a specific kind of animal. I remember that we went to many of the labs. We were in the fruits and horticultural labs, so they taught us how to crossbreed like plants, because it was like a different kind of learning by doing. We also have the learning by doing, where you need to go to the field, you need to have your machinery and you're going to be working in the field. That was part of the learning by doing as well. But we also have some models that they were focusing on creating these kind of skills, and how to put it as a lab technician. So in that way, you connect what you learned in the classes with what is coming in the field. So that was a good experience, because you prepared in the class, and you experience it in the learning by doing system.

Grace Bastow

I feel like the only comparison that I can find to it is in an agricultural classroom in high school. We only have ag for about an hour. I feel like we would do half the class instruction in the classroom, and then we would go do hands-on activities at our land lab. We would have the animals out there. We would put up fencing. I think it's cool that we can sort of relate on those aspects. I think it's super interesting. So, do you get to choose what model you do, or is it picked for you?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

They picked for you. So similarly to the classes you're taking the last two years that they're gonna tell you classes you're gonna be enrolled is gonna be the same with the learning by doing models that you're gonna be all together with a cohort, and you're gonna spend thinking about the learning that you are earning as part of this experience. You also feel really good connection with the people you are going through the same stressors, you build this kind of bonded system where you are feeling the same way. Long story short, they decide what we're going to be part of.

Lexi Westgate

Yeah, I think the hands-on learning-by-doing is so cool. It's definitely one thing to learn about a topic in the classroom, but actually doing it yourself is a totally different experience. Do you think that this model is more effective—getting to do these things yourself—in an educational environment?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

Thinking as an educator right now, like I have been transitioned from like undergrad to like right now as a faculty, I think it could be more effective, because it's important the learning by doing, but if you don't reflect, and if you don't have a pre entering process before the model, you're not going to be able to understand why you're doing the thing. So that's why one of the things that I will say that they need to improve. Because, as I said, like will be good, to understand why it will be good, like they reflect about this process so bad in general, it gave me a lot of skills. So for instance, like, because Russian, so that's something I had to learn. And I think that if I have to do it again, I will be able to do because of the training that I received. Yes, so that's something good. I don't know. I'm planning to use in the future.

Grace Bastow

One of the things that we did was work on cows and sheep in my ag class, and I still remember it. I feel like I could do it because I watched it—you know, it was hands-on. But yeah, that's one thing that we did. It was fun. Obviously, it's an interesting topic, but it was fun.

Lexi Westgate

Okay, so now we want to talk a little bit more about the cultural environment. So, Zamorano brings together students from many different countries. Could you tell us more about the different backgrounds and regions that the students come from? You kind of mentioned the culture shock of being in different places.

Dr. Pablo Lamino

Yeah, absolutely. So right now, I think that we have had around 20 nations as part of the current enrollment in 2026 that's based on what I discussed with my former advisor who's working there. So yeah. So we have people from all over Latin America. The only country that we may be excluding, it may be Argentina, well, the small country that we have in South America, Suriname. But besides those countries, we have a good representation of Latin America. So that's great in terms of the cultural piece, because it's the first time that you start experiencing how different and how rich cultures, and specifically Latin America as a cultural cluster is,

Grace Bastow

Well, going back to language—obviously, it's a majority Spanish-speaking. I'm assuming. Are there any other languages, or maybe, like, slang or vernacular that changes, that are barriers throughout education?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

Yeah. So we have people from Belize, for instance, Ana Lucia, she's a business scholar who's here at UF. Her native language is English. So when she jumped to Honduras, based on what I discussed to her, she had to learn or she had to adapt. So we have people from indigenous communities in Ecuador. Or that they have their own language, so they have to learn Spanish to be able to be fluent. Or even though they may be able to catch some words in Spanish and to communicate in Spanish, they are not used to this at the native language, so they need to adapt, in a way, to be fluent and be proficient with the Spanish language. So that has been a good experience, and I have seen differences in my thinking about the academic system. I'm thinking of my first experience taking an exam in Zamorano. I was completing a math exam in Ecuador. We write in numbers. We use commas, the semicolons to establish what is going to be 1100 or like a point one, zero. So in hundreds, they have a different kind of system. The first time that I jumped to this system, and they graded me, I was a little bit concerned, because I was used to a different format of seeing the numbers, and I asked for help. Can you help me to see if it's going to be 1000 or it's going to be 1.000 and they say this is something that you should know. So this kind of thing, like really small things, is a lot that you struggle with the cultural piece, because just thinking of how you learn something, and you've seen that in other system, they have a different way of interpreting this information.

Grace Bastow

Yeah, that seems like a lot to even get there. You know, to even start learning, you have to check off those boxes if you don't already know. Okay, so we're going to talk about the UF and Zamorano connection a little bit more in depth. It's really interesting that that even has a connection. I'm really glad that we've learned this—I didn't know it until this class, and I think it's super cool. One of the many cool things about UF, I guess: what kind of community exists between Zamorano alumni and the University of Florida, maybe outside of academics and more on a personal connection level?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

Okay, keeping outside the academic piece, I will say something good that we have here is that we have Zamorano alumni who are getting a degree at UF, so when you come here and when you spend like a master's or PhD, you end up becoming what we call a Zamo-Gator. So it's the mixture between the two—you are going to be a Gator and a Zamorano. So, having this feeling of being in the two communities has been great. Similar to the process at Zamorano, you're often going to go through the same path. You're going to write a dissertation, you're going to have your committee members. I'm not thinking of following a specific order, but just giving you some areas of things that we have in common. We try to have one or two meetings per semester so we can interact with different alumni from Zamorano working, studying, or getting a degree. I think that has been one of the ways that we are connecting. This year we're hosting the symposium. The symposium is for all the Zamoranos that are spread around the US. They're going to come here, and it's going to be in October, so it's going to be great because we're going to be able to brag about being a Gator. So, I think that's great. And you're going to find the same kind of thing with the other universities and Zamorano universities across the US. I used to be a Zamo-Raider because of Texas Tech—they call us the Raiders, so we mix the two. But right now, since I belong to UF, I'm a Zamo-Gator. I will say that's something great about the community you can build.

Lexi Westgate

So back more to the academics for students at UF. Do you think there are any lessons or perspectives we could learn from the Zamorano education model?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

I think that there's a double learning. I mean, I'm really proud of being alumni from Zamorano. I think that learning by doing is a great system. I think that the US system also has a lot of advantages, because at the end, many times you're going to see that faculty are really willing to learn how to be better faculty. Back in Zamorano, I will say that we have the learning by doing system, but many times we don't receive that kind of support from the faculty. So, I will say that could be one of the things they need to improve. I see that back in 2017, I heard that now they have their own system, they have changed it, and they're evaluating the faculty. So, really, they're investing in preparing and receiving training. If I have to give something we can take or leverage from these experiences at Zamorano, I would say that learning by doing will be one of them. The multicultural piece is another thing that is really helpful and really nice. And also, if I have to bring something, it's the brotherhood—I will keep with that one, because as part of graduating from that university, you receive a system of support where they're always going to look forward to helping you to be good. They're always going to look for a way to support you. So I will conclude with that one.

Grace Bastow

Well, I think that the Brotherhood part is really interesting. I definitely know that, like being in AEC, we have smaller class sizes, and it's very personable, like I have my entire schedule with the same group of people almost all day, and people with, like, maybe larger classes don't experience that, so they can't get as much support from their. Classmates and their professors, but I feel like we are like a family for AEC, so I definitely relate to that and understand why that is so important. I'm glad that's the experience there. Looking at the bigger picture. Why do you think international agriculture education experiences such as this are valuable for students today all over the world?

Dr. Pablo Lamino

As part of my position here at UF, I teach Intercultural Communication and Global Leadership. Every class that I teach, I start with these concepts. Right now, employers are looking for employees who have a high CQ instead of just a high IQ. The main reason is that you're going to be working with people from different places. With the internet, we all have different kinds of sources, social media, and many networking platforms that we can use. I think there is going to be a need to know how to interact with people. So that's going to be the main reason why, learning from my experiences, the best thing you can do is learn how to communicate with someone. Thinking as a faculty member right now, I'm mentoring people from different places, learning that they're going to have a different approach toward a specific goal will help you be more successful. So, once you learn how to communicate, how to lead people, how to be a good follower, it's going to facilitate the process of adapting and achieving the specific goal that you have set beforehand. So, I think that's one of the reasons why we need to emphasize learning about our cultures.

Lexi Westgate

Okay, so as we start to wrap up this conversation, we would love to hear any final thoughts or just anything you want to let our listeners know.

Dr. Pablo Lamino

Okay, I want to thanks for this opportunity to interact, because I'm feeling that is one of the ways that we're going to be able to contribute to Zamorano, to UF and also spread what Agricultural Communication is, because I'm feeling that many times, it's a really good field, but we don't have that much in other places about Latin America, and we don't have, like a field connected to this. So having this kind of sources and resources will help upcoming generations, even the ones like decision makers, to decide. Maybe this is going to be the approach that we can take in terms of spreading and designing a new curriculum that is including these kind of fields. Because I'm feeling that we are leaving behind, as we don't have that much special decision that we have in many of the institutions in the US. So I think that having these experiences is helping us to see the need that we have to create these kind of programs. It has been really good to find that they have these goal to expand beyond Florida and also find different ways to connect it. I've been talking with the person of someone right now, and he said, and I never thought about it before, to be honest, he said that the state that is closer in the system of production, in the weather, in everything, to Central America and South America, is Florida. I said he's right, because thinking of Texas or New Mexico, they are going to be facing different kind of challenges in terms of the agricultural piece, but here in Florida, we are going to be able to find a similarity. So learning from the experiences of what's happening in Latin America and learning from here in Florida is a good way to exchange and to find solutions that relate to not just agriculture, but indicating the entire society. So I think that will be my main takeaway. So we have a lot of room for keep exploring the opportunities to research. And it could be beyond Zamorano. It could go to South America to Central America at the end. So it's good to see this interaction like this kind of reflection on how they are similar somehow.

Grace Bastow

Well, thank you for joining us today and sharing your information and insights about Zamorano University and UF. We learned a lot, and we really appreciate you talking to us today.

Grace Bastow

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Streaming Science: Field y Futuro.

Lexi Westgate

I'm Lexi Westgate

Grace Bastow

I'm Grace Bastow, and we appreciate you for spending your time learning with us today.

Lexi Westgate

Today, we spoke with Dr. Pablo Lamino about the cultural and educational environment at Zamorano University.

Grace Bastow

From this conversation, we explored experiential learning, international collaboration, and agriculture education, and how Zamorano's learning-by-doing model helps prepare students for careers in agriculture and natural resources.

Lexi Westgate

We hope this episode inspires you to think about how culture, education, and hands-on experience can shape the next generation of agricultural leaders.

Grace Bastow

Continue to pay attention to the biodiversity around you, think across cultures, and consider the real-world impact of agricultural and natural resources sciences.

Lexi Westgate

To learn more about this episode's topic and guest, visit our show notes.

Grace Bastow

And to explore additional episodes and stay connected with us, visit streamingscience.com and follow Streaming Science on social media.

Lexi Westgate

Thanks again for listening, and we'll catch you in the next episode of Field y Futuro.

Grace Bastow

The Field y Futuro series was funded by a seed grant from the University of Florida's Department of Agricultural Education and Communication.