Capacity Building

      
CCSD’s capacity building programs take a multi-tiered approach to training for people of different educational backgrounds—from professional botanists and conservationists to university students and recent graduates to people in rural communities in tropical countries. Training is central to CCSD’s integrated approach to accomplish conservation goals and is a critical component of every initiative that CCSD conducts.

        

Training tiers

  • Field-based short- and long-term courses and internships

  • Mentoring and support for undergraduate thesis research

  • Mentoring and support for the most successful undergraduates to pursue graduate studies

  • Specialized training for diverse groups, including park guards, government officials, conservationists, and members of rural communities

  • Environmental awareness-raising and training in conservation of biodiversity

  • Fellowships for professional development at MBG
Fellowships

     

CCSD takes great pride in its extremely successful training/practice fellowships at the Missouri Botanical Garden, a program that has grown significantly in scope over the years.

The fellowships, which are well established and prestigious, provide opportunities for individuals who have completed their undergraduate degree and have achieved a certain level of professional development to carry out meaningful work in a first-class plant science and conservation institution. The fellows also have opportunities to interact with the scientific staff at the Garden/CCSD, as well as with graduate students and other visitors, and to establish contact with faculty at local universities to explore possibilities for pursuing graduate studies.

Fellowships for professional development at the Garden offered for application in 2019:

Shirley A. Graham Fellowships in Systematic Botany and Biogeography

Becas Alwyn H. Gentry para Botanicos(as) Latinoamericanos(as) 

             

SHIRLEY GRAHAM FELLOWSHIP

Cassiano Welker, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Institute of Biology, Uberlândia, Brazil  
"Systematic studies in Eriochrysis P. Beauv. and Schizachyrium Nees (Poaceae – Andropogoneae): taxonomic revision and molecular phylogeny"

Fabiola Montoya, Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, La Paz, Bolivia
"Abundancia en comunidades de Arecaceae y su relación con condiciones edáficas en bosques andinos (Región Madidi – La Paz)"

Isler Chinchilla, Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), San José, Costa Rica
"Sinopsis del genero Malaxis (Orchidaceae) en Costa Rica"

CCSD FELLOWSHIP

Victoria Bernasconi, Universidad de Buenos Aires - Facultad de Agronomía (FAUBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
"How does soil quality change over time during woodland restoration?"

Master's and Doctoral Students mentored by CCSD staff in 2017

Mentor: Matthew Albrecht
WashU: Rachel Becknell, Holly Bernardo, James Lucas

Mentor: James Aronson
Tel Aviv University: Aviv Avisar

Mentor: Christine Edwards
SLU: Alex Linan, Shih-Hui Lui, Brigette Willaims; Serena Achá, UMSL: Brock Mashburn; WashU: Rachel Lyman

Mentor: Ivan Jimenez 
Universidad de los Andes, Colombia: Yam Mellissa Pineda; UMSL: Isabel Loza; Camilo Andrés Calderón, WashU: Dilys Vela


Mentor: Leighton Reed
Universidade de São Paulo: Frederico Domene; University of Minnesota: Matthew Donald Hill; UMSL: Miguel Cháves-Fallas; Estefanía Fernández

Mentor: Sebastian Tello
Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain: Verónica Sandoya; Universidad Mayor de San Andres, Bolivia: Flabiola Montoya; Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Mexico: Ever Flores; UMSL: Maricruz Jaramillo; Claudia Aparicio