Camila Guzman

Camila describes Queen of Compost as “a community compost project that is volunteer-based outdoor learning experience.” Volunteers help compost food waste, turn/maintain compost piles, and feed/water fruit trees. Camila hopes that volunteers become involved due to their curiosity but leave with valuable information about earth processes and feelings of accomplishment.

Camila’s motivation to start collecting and composting community food scraps goes back to her peers within her major during her days at CSUCI. “They gave me a lot of support to take my compost capstone project into the greater community,” Camila shares. Queen of Compost has helped over 150 community members in diverting over 15,000 pounds of food waste from going to the landfills and back into our local soils. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Camila has established a pick-up service to continue composting efforts. “I feel like the project evolves more and more every week. By building better soils, we are building healthier and more resilient communities.”

Camila has plans to expand the Queen of Compost into a full-time project and has desired to talk to the local farm worker community to advocate for them and bring back the knowledge they hold regarding agriculture back into the community. “Ventura County has valuable agricultural land, and it is almost doing the community disservice to not learn about the soil. Farm workers are valuable, we should listen to what they know and give them a space to share what they know.”

The evolution and expansion of CSUCI’s culture of service is also reliant on the continued efforts of its faculty and staff. Without the dedication of those teaching service-learning courses, many students may not have found the local projects and non-profits that inspire them to continue service. The staff and faculty that make time for activism and volunteerism outside of their daily obligations act as role models for CSUCI’s population and strengthen the Community Engagement.