Tag: Somaly Jaramillo Hurtado

Meet Our Amazing CSC Summer Interns: Somaly Jaramillo Hurtado

Posted on by Julia Havens

Somaly Jaramillo Hurtado CPW Community Planning Workshop OPDr Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience

What is your name? My name is Somaly Jaramillo Hurtado.

Alias? No alias, just Somaly

Where were you born and where do you call home? I was born in Buenaventura, the most important port in the Pacific Coast of Colombia. However, I studied and worked many years in Cali, Colombia. I really like living in Cali, but my family live in Buenaventura, and for that reason Buenaventura is still my place, it is my home.

Something fun you like to do? I really enjoy traveling.

Name of the last movie you saw and give it a rating: “Divergent” rate: 2/5 stars

In which graduate program are you enrolled? I am enrolled in the Community and Regional Planning master program. I really like the diversity of classes the program has, but I am interested in the environmental planning and community development fields.

What Community Planning Workshop (CPW)  project did you worked on during the academic year? I lived an exciting learning experience with the County Market Analysis for a Year-Round Regional Public Market /Food Hub”. It is a socio-economic development project with the purpose of better understand the demand for a public market with some functions of a food hub. We found that residents in Eugene and Springfield could support a public market because there is an increasing interest and movement around local food. Not only several people want to buy local food and would like to go once per week to a public market, but also the number of local food’s farmers and organizations that promote and support local food in Lane County is growing.

What is most critical skill you learned from being engaged in CPW this past year? As planner and as graduate student this project let me develop several skills such as public speaking, writing reports, organizing meeting agendas, interviewing, researching, and analyzing information.

What about CPW made you smile? Working in team makes me smile. I had a really nice and funny team.

What are your big summer plans? Just to work on my two internships and on my thesis project.

Living the CPW Experience

Posted on by Julia Havens
Somaly Jaramillo Hurtado Fulbright Scholar CPW Community Planning Workshop
Lane Regional Food Hub Team, CPW-Community Planning Workshop. Team members: Somaly Jaramillo Hurtado, Aniko Drlik-Muehleck, Stephen Dobrinich, Evelyn Perdomo, and Alex Macfarlan. Missing: Leigh Anne Michael, Project Manager

My name is Somaly, and I would like to tell you about my Community Planning Workshop (CPW) experience. I am an Afro-Colombian Leader’s Fulbright student in my first year in the Community and Regional Planning Master Program at the University of Oregon. I applied to this program because my professional goal is to implement projects of sustainable development that not only benefit the environment, but also improve the quality of life of people. Furthermore, I want to work in the design and implementation of development programs for neighborhoods, cities, regions, and countries. CPW offers the experience of working in real projects, and I wanted to face real situations and obstacles in graduate school that appear during the implementation of a project.

Now, I am enrolled in CPW, and participating in an exciting project, the “Lane County Year-Round Regional Public Market and Food Hub Market Analysis.” The purpose of the market analysis is to provide the City of Eugene Planning and Development Department and the Lane County Economic Development Division with information to better understand the market potential for a regional public market and food hub that will advance the cause of local food in Lane County.

This project is really fascinating! I chose this project because it is the first step in a longer planning process that not only could boost economic development, but also could encourage social cohesion, employment opportunities, healthy eating habits, environmental education, and sustainable agriculture; values with which I feel affiliated. I am confident this project will allow me learn about the market research process and about public markets and food hubs. Also, it will help me enhance my planning, public speaking, analyzing, and writing skills. 

During the project we are going to identify successful case studies of public markets and food hubs across the nation, collect information about food expenditures and shopping preferences in Lane County through a household survey of Eugene and Springfield residents, as well as identify the gaps in the supply and distribution chain for local food in Lane County. We will also work with a Technical Resource Group comprised of people involved with local food to inform the team about the research over the study period.

Working on this project is fascinating, as is the idea of applying the knowledge I learn in my home country. My commitment as a Fulbright student is to go back to Colombia and use my knowledge and learning experience to contribute to the development of my nation. Colombia’s small farmers cope with issues of getting their products from the rural to the urban areas. I hope from working on this project to be able not only to design and execute a market research project about local food in Colombia, but also to develop a food hub and get support from Colombian institutions for its implementation.

Stay tuned if you are hungry for more INFOODMATION about this project!

Somaly Jaramillo Hurtado Fulbright Scholar CPW Community Planning Workshop About the author: Somaly Jaramillo Hurtado currently holds an Afro-colombian Leader’s Fulbright scholarship, and is working toward a Master Degree in Community and Regional Planning, with an emphasis on environmental planning and community development at the University of Oregon. Somaly is an Environmental and Natural Resources Administrator at Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Cali, Colombia. Her professional experience includes implementing the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, and designing and monitoring hazardous waste environmental management plans.